UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

AFCC E-Newsletter Online

Dave Vigliotta has just alerted me to the online publication of the E-Newsletter for the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts. This E-newsletter is described as follows:

The AFCC eNEWS, published bi-monthly, will provide up-to-date information for professionals including case law and research updates, international news and the latest initiatives in family law and conflict resolution. AFCC eNEWS will be sent to AFCC members and is available to the public. Please invite your colleagues to register for AFCC eNEWS by forwarding this issue and encouraging them to subscribe. All e-newsletters will be archived in the member center on the AFCC Web site, only accessible by AFCC members.  AFCC will never share, rent or otherwise distribute the AFCC eNews subscription list.

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

When is It Proper for a Court to Impute Income When Awarding Alimony

Clients are often dismayed when a trial court imputes income when making an award of child support or alimony / spousal support.  Explaining to the layperson that "imputing income" means that the court assumes that the person could make the same salary or wages that he or she was making in a previous employment if they wanted to doesn't make a client any happier.

What about husbands or wives who have lost their jobs and who are still looking for work? When is it fair and equitable to impute income to them, and what percentage of their actual wages can be ordered as alimony payments?

On February 16, 2006, the Michigan Court of Appeals said imputing income to a husband who had been laid off for that an award that gave the wife 60% of her former husband's gross earnings was unfair and "clearly inequitable".

Conciliation Practice

David Vigliotta of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts sent me an email yesterday announcing the completion of a report by Family Law Education Reform (FLER). FLER was created to investigate whether or not the law school’s family law curriculum adequately prepares future family lawyers for today’s challenges of practice. The report was sponsored by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the Center for Children, Families and the Law of Hofstra Law School.

The Report’s answer to the question whether future lawyers are adequately trained is “not well.”  This conclusion requires reconsideration of the nature and purposes of legal education in an area central to the welfare of thousands of children and parents.

David Vigliotta also announces that the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts will be hosting its 43rd Annual Conference in Tampa Bay, May 31-June3, 2006 and there will be two workshops on FLER.  Here’s a link to the conference brochure.

When Can a Child Choose Which Parent He or She Wants to Live With?

A parent recently emailed me with this question: " Have you had any experience with children who are 14 and no longer wish to stay with the non-custodial parent?  What rights does the minor have in this case?"

This question is asked so often that it appears that there's a common misconception that children have any rights at all to decide when they want to change their parenting time schedule.

Parenting time and custodial arrangements cannot be changed unless the parent filing the motion for a modification can show that since there has been a "change in circumstances" or "good cause" that has arisen since the entry of the most recent custody and parenting time order that makes a modification best for the child. The intent of the Legislature is to make it difficult to change the prior order to promote stability for the child. So unless a parent can show good cause or a change in circumstances, the Family court does not even have to let the parent have a best interest hearing on his or her motion.

In 2003, the Michigan Court of Appeals finally addressed the meaning of the terms "proper cause" and "change in circumstances."

Resource: Child Custody Battles

You can listen to a web broadcast of a recent NPR talk show titled Tug of War Over Children on Justice Talking. In this program, host Margot Adler talks to David Meyer, a professor of family law about the standards courts use to settle child custody disputes. The social implications of battles between moms and dads over custody are debated by shared custody advocate Dr. Ned Holstein, the founder of Fathers and Families, and Joan Meier, a law professor, whose work research and publications focus on domestic violence, criminal procedure, civil rights, and child custody.

Over 40% of marriages end in divorce. The battle for child custody and support are among the most common and contentious disputes heard by our nation's courts. This web broadcast focuses on the following issues: What do judges look at when making custody and child support decisions? Do moms get an unfair advantage? What happens when one parent snatches the kids and hides them from the other parent? Should teenagers get a say in where they live? What happens to the kids when parents break up?

Read more: Can a Child Ever Choose Which Parent She Wants to Live With?

Parentage issues have long been of special interest to Jeanne Hannah. To contact Jeanne Hannah with your questions or to view her Family Law website, click here.