I am a divorce lawyer in Auburn Hills, Michigan.  An issue that one must face in just about every divorce, is property division.  Generally marital property will be divided in a roughly equal fashion while separate property will be awarded to the party to whom it belongs.  The matter of Adamiak v Adamiak addressed the issue of worker's compensation benefits.

In that case, the husband was awarded 100% of his workers comp award.  The wife appealed this award claiming that some portion of the award should have been granted to her.  The Michigan Court of Appeals found that the award was for past and future medical costs, personal damages and lost wages both past and future.  Typically, the portion of the award that is for medical costs, personal damages (pain, suffering, etc.) and future wages  would be the husband's separate property.  On the other hand, the portion of the award that is attributable to wages lost during the marriage is clearly marital and should have been divided equally.  However, the appellate court found that the wife failed to raise this issue at trial and therefore she was out of luck on her appeal.

The wife in that case should have claimed at trial that she was entitled to one-half of the award that was attributable to the husband's lost wages from the time that they were married.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 248.608.4123 or request a consultation through the website.  My office is close to M-59 and adjacent to I-75 so we are easily accessible to Rochester, Birmingham, Troy, Bloomfield and Lake Orion as well as Macomb County and Wayne County.