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At Black, Black, and Black, we have the ability
and experience to handle all of your family law needs, from the detailed management
of a complex marital property dispute to the sensitive advocacy needed in an
emotionally charged child custody proceeding. We stress both litigation and Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation in our family law practice,
and represent clients in a full range of family law matters, including:
> Adoption
> Alimony, maintenance, or spousal support
> Annulments
> Child custody
> Child kidnapping
> Child support
> Contempt and enforcement proceedings
> Divorce
> Domestic abuse
> Guardianships
> Juvenile law
> Legal separation
> Marital property division
> Mediation
> Parenting time
> Paternity
> Personal protection orders (PPOs)
> Post-judgment modification
> Postnuptial agreements
> Premarital and prenuptial agreements
> Restraining orders
> Temporary hearings
> Termination of parental rights
> Visitation and placement
Child Support
Child support is generally ordered by the court in
situations in which a child lives with one but not both parents. The
non-custodial parent, or the parent with whom the child does not live,
is responsible for contributing a certain portion of his or her income,
based on state child support guidelines, to help support the child, even
if the custodial parent has income of his or her own. All states, including
Michigan, have guidelines by which courts determine child support.
The guidelines were originally established because variations in the amounts
of support set in similar circumstances were considered to be too wide and
because child support, in many cases, was considered to be too low. The guidelines
are formulas that consider the income of the parties, the number of children,
and other factors. Child support guidelines attempt to approximate
the proportion of parental income that would have been spent for support
of the child if the family had not been divided by divorce. Courts plug numbers
into the formula and come up with an amount of support that should be paid
for the child or children. The child support guidelines are not the exact
method of calculating child support in every situation, and parties can argue
that because of special circumstances, a court should order more or less
support than the guideline amount.
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Child Custody and Placement
Child custody and placement issues arise
when parents are divorced or separated, when the parents have never
been married, or when some type of reproductive technology, such as
surrogate motherhood or sperm and egg donation cases, complicates the issues
even further. Courts generally apply a "best interests of the child" standard
when determining to whom custody should be awarded. Child custody is
the right and duty to care for a child on a day-to-day basis and to
make major decisions about the child. In sole custody arrangements, one parent
takes care of the child most of the time and makes major decisions
about the child. In joint custody arrangements, both parents share in making
major decisions and both parents also might spend substantial amounts of
time with the child. For parents who do not like the term "visitation" or "custody," it
is possible to draft a custody and visitation order that leaves out
those terms and just describes the times at which the child will be
with each parent.
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Divorce
Divorce is the legal process by which a marriage is terminated.
In a divorce proceeding, the parties' marriage is legally ended and the related
issues, such as spousal and child support, child custody and visitation,
and property and debt division, are resolved, either by the parties' voluntary
agreement, through the assistance of a mediator, or after a court trial.
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Spousal Maintenance
The obligation of spouses to support each other
does not necessarily terminate when they divorce. If the divorce will
leave one spouse with very little income and the other with enough
to contribute to the low-income spouse's support, the court may award spousal
maintenance, or what has historically been referred to as alimony. The amount
and duration of spousal maintenance depends on several factors, including:
> The length of the marriage
> The age of each spouse
> The health of each spouse
> The ability of each spouse to be self-supporting
> The income of the primary breadwinner
> Standard of living the parties enjoyed during the marriage
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