The holiday season can be a difficult time to be a divorced or separated parent. When coupled with the stress often associated with the holidays, dealing with problematic child custody arrangements and visitation schedules can be overwhelming for Michigan parents. It is understandable that this can lead to an unsatisfactory and less-than-enjoyable holiday season. However, parents who feel their holidays…
According to records from Michigan’s Macomb County Circuit Court, NFL center Dominic Raiola owes two months’ worth of child support to the mother of his 5-year-old son. Raiola, who has played with the Detroit Lions since joining the NFL in 2001, never married the child’s mother but the couple was reportedly engaged in “an intimate relationship” for several years. After…
The new tests could have important legal implications and prove valuable for both men and women across Michigan. A Kalamazoo-based testing facility will become the first lab in West Michigan to allow patients to test a fetus’s DNA to establish paternity before a child is born. The facility’s co-founder explained that men often want to know whether they are the…
A city commissioner from Kalamazoo, Michigan, says she will change her name following the impending finalization of her divorce. Her husband is in prison after being found guilty on a number of sex crime charges, but it does not appear the charges themselves were directly responsible for the couple’s divorce. “We did not leave one another,” she argued. “The state…
Handling over 300,000 child custody and child support cases each year, the Wayne County Friend of the Court is part of one of Michigan’s busiest courts. As such, it attracts a large amount of criticism from those embroiled in difficult and bitter family law cases, many of whom say the FOC routinely dismisses their concerns and fails to use its…
Some people have a lot to lose in the property distribution phase of divorce, which can make it tempting to attempt to hide assets from the court in order to protect them from division. However, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure expressly prohibit such tactics, declaring that anyone who signs a court document is attesting to its truth. As such,…
Divorce can have a number of effects on one’s finances, family and personal life, causing changes that are generally easy to measure and correct with effort and thoughtfulness. However, divorce can also leave one feeling lost and emotionally damaged. Many divorcees are understandably overwhelmed by such feelings, finding it difficult to put their ordeal behind them and get on with…
Facebook, Twitter and similar websites have become omnipresent in the lives of many people across the country, but experts warn that some Internet activity could jeopardize the results of your divorce. Michigan and most other states lack laws explicitly addressing the use of online posts in divorce cases. As a result, many family courts have begun to allow Facebook posts,…
A NBA player who was formerly signed with the Detroit Pistons may be facing 11 months of jail time if he does not pay the $53,053 that he reportedly owes to a Michigan woman for child support. A judge handed down the delayed sentence at a recent hearing for the player, who has been charged with child abandonment and desertion.…
A 24-year-old man wants to see the child of a girl he admitted to raping when he was 17, filing a petition seeking visitation rights because he is currently paying $110 in weekly child support to the child’s mother. She was 14 at the time of the rape. The case has raised the question of whether convicted rapists should be…