UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

More on Deployments and Custody

Attorney Grant Griffiths has written on his blog Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer about a custody decision awarding custody of a 2-year-old to the mother after a father was deployed to Iraq for a significant period of time, rejecting the father's request for a delay under authority ot the Servicemembers' Relief Act.

For information about divorce and military families, see Jeanne Hannah's website

Alert: Avoiding Violation of a Personal Protection Order – What Constitutes a Violation?

Sometimes a PPO may prohibit a person from contacting his or her former spouse, girl or boy friend, or cohabitant in person or by telephone, and may limit any contact to emails or writings. If the parties have children in common, such a PPO might permit specific telephone contact with the children and/or might permit certain kinds of exchanges of the children for parenting times.

The Michigan Court of Appeals just decided two cases – actually two separate incidents between the same parties that were brought to the court in two separate appeals – that should help parents in these situations avoid criminal prosecution for violations.

The issues before the Court were: does leaving a message on an answering machine violate the PPO and does driving by the ex-wife’s house violate the PPO?

There is a great danger of prosecution for criminal contempt if a party violates a PPO. A father or mother separated from the children will certainly wish contact with the children. It is very important to understand how a parent can get contact with the children safely without subjecting himself/herself to criminal prosecution, fines, and jail time.

Reviewing these two recent cases will help you to understand how important it is to consider carefully and to comply with the exact wording in the PPO to avoid a violation and criminal contempt prosecution.

Appeal of Cohabitation Decision

Today's Detroit Free Press related that Christian Muller is appealing to the MSC the recent ruling that he couldn't permit his live-in girlfriend to cohabit when his daughters were spending parenting time with him.

To contact Jeanne Hannah with your questions or to view her Family Law website, click here

How a Trial Court Looks at a Move-Away Case

You’ve perhaps read the other entries in this Blog dealing with the so-called 100-mile rule – the statute that says, in part, as follows:  "(1) A child whose parental custody is governed by court order has, for the purposes of this section, a legal residence with each parent. Except as otherwise provided in this section, a parent of a child whose custody is governed by court order shall not change a legal residence of the child to a location that is more than 100 miles from the child’s legal residence at the time of the commencement of the action in which the order is issued."

A case decided by Michigan's Court of Appeals on December 8, 2005 illustrates how a trial court may evaluate a parent’s motion to remove the children’s residences.