Oakland County (MI) Family Law Blog

When a marriage ends, it's important to pay close attention to the property division issues. That is especially true in a challenging economy, such as the one we've had in Farmington Hills and throughout Oakland County in recent years.

The widespread economic pain has raised the stakes for Michigan marital property division decisions. Making sure the property and debts are divided fairly matters a lot when jobs are so scarce and wages so stagnant for so many people.

One aspect of property division is making sure that beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement accounts are properly updated after a divorce. If these forms are not changed properly, an ex-spouse could potentially assert a right to the proceeds of a life insurance policy or a retirement account.

Federal law states that, as a general rule, a surviving spouse automatically inherits a 401(k) plan. If you have remarried and have children from an earlier marriage, talk with a property division lawyer about what steps are needed to pass 401(k) money along to them. You may be required, for example, to have your new spouse execute a consent form allowing non-spouse beneficiaries.

Marriage involves a lot of sharing. Two lives become intertwined in so many ways that the privacy lines can become blurred. But a recent Oakland County case is a stark reminder that e-mail accounts are one aspect of a marriage that are best kept separate.

As Oakland County child custody lawyers, we know how sensitive the accessing and sharing of a spouse's personal information can be. The risks involved are well illustrated in the current case involving a Michigan man who logged into his wife's Gmail account by guessing her password. The man, Leon Walker, printed out e-mails indicating his wife Clara was having an affair.

Leon Walker shared these e-mails with a previous husband of Clara's - who then used them to seek an emergency order granting custody of the child he and Clara had together.

The custody motion was followed by another serious development. A Michigan prosecutor charged Leon Walker with violating an online privacy law. The law, MCL 752.795, prohibits "intentionally and without authorization" accessing someone's computer information in order to "acquire, alter, damage, delete, or destroy property."

If your marriage has gone bad, divorce is an understandable way to move forward. It allows you the chance to start over, after the property has been divided up and custody arrangements resolved for any minor children you may have.

In some cases, however, an intermediate arrangement sometimes called legal separation may make sense. As experienced Farmington Hills divorce attorneys, we know that whether separation is the right fit for you depends on your unique circumstances.

In Michigan, a legal separation isn't required before you get a divorce. In fact, Michigan law does not have a separate status called "legal separation." But there are actions that you can take to recognize the formality of arrangements that go with separation.

The best example of this is when you and your spouse agree to split up and agree upon something called a judgment of separate maintenance. Though this agreement stops short of outright divorce, it enables you and your former partner to divide up debts and assets. It can also be used to formalize child custody and financial support obligations.

Child custody decisions are inevitably emotional. It could scarcely be otherwise, precisely because relationships with children are involved.

The law seeks to channel the emotion properly through appropriate legal structures. For example, in the case of child custody in Michigan, a state law dating from 1956 provides that a child born to the mother during the marriage is a child of the marriage.

In other words, the law presumes that the husband was the father of the child, even if a DNA test shows that the biological father was another man.

This law is currently in play in a child custody dispute in Grand Haven in which the biological father named Matt Dykema seeks to see his daughter, even though the mother was married to another man at the time the child was born.

The mother and that man were subsequently divorced, and the mother has legal custody of the child. As it stands now, however, the law grants the ex-husband more visitation rights than Dykema, the biological father.

Legislators in Lansing are considering revising the law to allow judges to have more discretion in making custody decisions in cases like this. Last month, the Michigan Senate approved a change in the custody law that would grant greater flexibility to judges in ruling on cases like Dykema's.

Statistics show that increasing numbers of couples are signing pre-nuptial agreements before they get married. And the news does not mean that more and more cynics are heading down the aisle with clouds of doubt hanging over their heads. Instead, the growth of pre-nups reflects changing societal views about marriage and the purpose of pre-nups in modern families.

Pre-Nuptial Agreements On the Rise

A survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that the use of pre-nuptial agreements has increased by 73 percent in just the past five years. Lawyers responding to the survey also indicated that more women are requesting the pre-marriage contracts that state how a couple's assets should be divided in the event of a divorce.

As referenced in prior blogs posts, families are migrating in record amounts throughout the US - scouring every state in search of jobs. Unfortunately just like any other family, these families sometimes split - which often leads to emotionally charged interstate child custody disputes.

In an earlier blog post, it was discussed how a Michigan court would first obtain jurisdiction before they could make an interstate child custody determination. However, the prior blog dealt specifically with how a Michigan court would obtain jurisdiction over the child custody dispute in the first place - but the questions now become, does a Michigan court that issued a child custody order still have jurisdiction after the child moves to another state, or conversely, does a Michigan court have the ability to modify a child custody order issued by another state when the child moves to Michigan?

Michigan's Continuing Jurisdiction over Child Custody

Just as with initial child custody determinations, the ability of a Michigan court to make subsequent child custody decisions are governed by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.

Mass migration is occurring throughout the US as workers attempt to find work due to the current economic downturn. As these workers travel - often with their families in-tow - they can experience many financial hardships. Unfortunately, the stress of these financial difficulties can often lead to parents, and thus families, splitting up.

When parents do split, child custody will often be hotly contested. However, given that these families may have lived in various states searching for work, it may be difficult to ascertain which state will be able to resolve their interstate child custody dispute.

Jurisdiction of Michigan Courts in Child Custody Disputes

Jurisdiction, and thus the ability of a Michigan court to make a child custody decision, is governed by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act in Michigan.

A study performed by Michigan State University found a widening mortality gap between married and unmarried people. The information in the MSU study bodes well for those in marriages, but unfortunately, not all marriages last - with many ending in divorce.

The MSU Study

Researchers at MSU analyzed national mortality rates from 1986 to 2000, a time when illness-related mortality rates were declining. Despite the overall improvement in longevity, however, the researchers found that unmarried, divorced and widowed people did not live as long as married people.

This and previous studies analyzing the effect of marriage on mental, emotional and physical health also found that married men and women have much lower rates of depression than unmarried individuals. Further, studies say people in first marriages are the least depressed of all.