Michigan Family Law Blog

Q: Can I get an alimony/spousal support modification in Michigan if I lose my job?

Alimony is a thorn in the side of many a divorced spouse who, despite making a clean physical break from their former love, is irked by the idea of paying ongoing court-ordered financial support to the now-ex. Not everyone feels that way, of course, but enough do that movie story lines commonly poke fun at the shady ways disgruntled people attempt to get out of alimony.

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Q: What happens if I can’t afford to pay my child support payment?

When a couple divorces, the needs of the children are top priority and that includes financial support. Child support is the monthly payment the non-custodial parent is required to pay to the custodial parent.

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Can proper pre-nuptial planning streamline and privatize an eventual divorce?

Brangelina is now just Brad and Angelina again. By now you’ve likely heard that one of the world’s most popular celebrity power couples, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, has recently called it quits after 12 years together and two years of marriage. The couple has six minor children together, with three being adopted by the couple. They also reportedly have 12 properties between them, with Pitt owning seven, Jolie owning two, and the couple jointly owning three others acquired prior to their marriage.

Jolie is seeking a

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I am a divorce lawyer in  Auburn Hills, Michigan close to Rochester Hills and Troy.  While Michigan is a "no-fault" state when it comes to divorce - which means that one does not have to prove a reason to get divorced, the fault in causing the breakdown of the marriage may be taken into account when dividing property or calculating alimony.

 

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I am a divorce lawyer in the Rochester area of Oakland County, Michigan.  Some people I speak with seem to think that alimony is no longer awarded in Michigan.  Nothing could be further from the truth, alimony or spousal support as it is called in our state, is alive and well and can be awarded to men or women after a divorce.  In addition, some people insist that if he or she was faced with paying alimony that he or she would quit working.

This is probably a bad idea.
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I am a family law attorney with my office in Auburn Hills on the border of Rochester Hills, Michigan.  The marital home can be one of the bigger assets in a divorce case.  There are several ways to handle the division of the value or the equity in the marital home.  The most straight forward way is to sell the home and divide the proceeds.  The other common way of dividing the equity is that one party will keep the home and "buy-out" the other spouse's equity.

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How could the state I divorce in impact my legal rights?

Divorce laws are set by the individual states, which has created considerable variability from state to state.  Where you divorce could have an impact on how long the process takes, your property division rights, and more.

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What legal steps should I take if I am caring for my grandchild?

In an ideal world, all children would be raised in a loving and stable family.  Unfortunately, this is not the case for every child.  At times, parents across America find themselves unable to properly care for their children.  When a parent fails to provide the needed care,

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One issue that often comes up in relatively shorter term marriages is how to divide any premarital equity in the marital home where one of the parties owned the home before the marriage.  The matter of Boras v Boras, COA 328616, July 21, 2016 (Unpublished), provides an example of how the court typically handles such a situation.
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I am a divorce lawyer.  My office is located in Auburn Hills, Oakland County, Michigan, close to Rochester and easily accessible to Troy, Birmingham, Clarkston and Holly.  Once in a while someone will ask me a question about whether he or she might be considered guilty of abandonment and how that might affect a divorce.  When it comes to divorces, abandonment is no longer a meaningful legal term (ones actions might be considered with regards to alimony or property division – but it does not mean that someone forfeits his or her rights to the marital estate because of willful absence) however, I recently read a case where a plaintiff tried to use the legal concept of abandonment to stop a wife from inheriting her husband’s estate in probate court, it did not work.

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I am a divorce lawyer with my office in Auburn Hills, Oakland County, Michigan. My office is centrally located close to Rochester, Rochester Hills, Birmingham, Bloomfield, Troy, Oxford, Clarkston and Oakland Township.  The first time I meet with a potential client, I often use two different “prognosticator” programs to determine an estimate for child support and/or spousal support.  These programs are often relatively accurate with respect to the child support because child support is based upon a formula however the amount of child support varies depending on the number of overnights the children have with each parent.  Alimony or spousal support is based upon fourteen factors and is nor formulaic, however, these programs take some of the factors and apply a formula to those quantifiable factors.  I use the prognosticator as a helpful tool to provide a suggestion regarding the potential range and length of spousal support.Read more . . .