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I have
been married for twenty-seven years.
There are times in a marriage when you
no longer feel in love with your
partner. The decision to file for
divorce is important and should not be
entered into without first trying
counseling to see if the marriage can be
saved, especially if you have children.
There is an immense body of studies that
show that children do better,
scholastically and emotionally, in an
intact family. I can recommend a
counselor if you wish to pursue this
avenue
What can
you do if your partner refuses
counseling and is resigned to going
forward with the divorce? After getting
over the shock, grief and anger, your
general attitude should be to accept the
inevitable. Michigan is a no-fault
state which means that only one of the
parties has to want the divorce and that
fault is not a factor in deciding
whether to grant the divorce. You need
to identify the assets accumulated
during the marriage and obtain
documentation of their current value.
While the norm is that the Court will
divide marital property roughly equally.
The Court must justify the division of
property using the following factors:
-
duration of the marriage
-
contributions of the parties to the
marital estate
-
age of
the parties
-
health
of the parties
-
life
status of the parties
-
necessities and circumstances of the
parties
-
earning
abilities of the parties
-
past
relations and conduct of the parties
-
general
principles of equity.
There may
even be additional factors that are
relevant to a particular case. For
example, the court may choose to
consider the interruption of the
personal career or education of either
party. The determination of relevant
factors will vary depending on the facts
and circumstances of the case. Contrary
to popular belief, one circumstance
considered by the Court in the
determination of property division is
the fault or misconduct of a party.
However, the trial court must consider
all the relevant factors and not assign
disproportionate weight to any one
circumstance.
Obviously,
for parents, the most important issue in
a divorce is child custody, parenting
time and support. These topics are
discussed in separate sections of this
site.
Spousal
Support
While there
are two computer programs which purport
to “predict“ the amount and duration of
spousal support, they do not take into
consideration all of the factors the
Court must consider.
These factors are:
-
the past relations and conduct of the
parties
-
the
length of the marriage
-
the
abilities of the parties to work
-
the
source and amount of property awarded to
the parties
-
the
parties' ages
-
the
abilities of the parties to pay alimony
-
the
present situation of the parties
-
the
needs of the parties
-
the
parties' health
-
the
prior standard of living of the parties
and whether either is responsible for
the support of others
-
contributions of the parties to the
joint estate
-
a
party's fault in causing the divorce
-
the
effect of cohabitation on a party's
financial status, and
-
general principles of equity
The Court
will weigh all of these factors together
with the general principal that spousal
support is not intended to impoverish
either party. In no case will spousal
support and child support exceed fifty
(50%) of the Payor spouse’s income. A
link to Alimony/Spousal Support
Guidelines is included in the Law Links
section of this site.
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