Imagine the police have seized your cell phone, obtaining a search warrant for the data stored on the device. In their attempt to retrieve the data, they claim you must provide the password to the phone.
Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court, in an 7-1 decision, held that states could not sanction suspected drunk drivers for refusing a warrantless blood draw. Breath samples can still be taken from a driver, however, without a warrant.
Last month, Governor Rick Snyder signed HB 4476 which outlines standards for mediators relative to domestic violence. This new law requires the domestic relations mediator to, “make reasonable inquiry as to whether either party has a history of a coercive or violent relationship with the other party.”
Debtor’s Prison apparently has been eliminated in Michigan following a significant change to the applicable court rule.
Last week, we came across an article in the Sunday NYT Business section about an elderly individual whose practiced frugality damaged his credit score.
Several websites have cropped-up devoted to grandparents placed in the tough and unenviable position of raising their grandchildren because their own children are incapable of doing so due to drug addiction.
Like death, taxes are a part of life; a certainty. When going through a divorce, there are significant tax considerations to take into account when negotiating a property and support settlement.
This post introduces the reader to a funeral representative; a new type of fiduciary recently created by statute.
Just when, really, we thought we had seen it all, here comes this report out of Texas. While the events transpired nearly 4-years ago, the fall-out for the transgressing judge took place just last month.
Now that marriage equality is a fundamental constitutional right, same-sex custody disputes have a family court framework for resolution. This is not the case, however, for the legion of unmarried same-sex couples that have children.
The Michigan Senate is considering whether to transform the crime of minor in possession of alcohol from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. The legislature is addressing an age-old problem: what to do about minors that drink alcohol?
70 percent of the divorce proceedings conducted in the Wayne County Circuit Court’s Family Court Division are conducted with at least one party in propria persona.
This interesting family law case springs from Livingston County. The Livingston family court judge’s criminal contempt ruling was reversed by the Michigan Court of Appeals last month based on a Due Process analysis.
One of the most famous tourist spots in Michigan, iconic Mackinac Island, has played a surprisingly important role in our state’s history. The island was a key battleground in the War of 1812 when the British attempted to retake our country, landing on the island from the North, taking some high-ground, and with the assistance of the local Indians, surprising the garrison of U.S. soldiers and taking Fort Mackinac.
As divorce lawyers, we see quite a bit of parental alienation in its various forms. Some cases are severe, like the Tsimhoni case from Waterford & Clarkston, with its attendant perils for the judge and other family court professionals assigned to the case, while other cases are mild; amounting to a series of disparaging editorials against the other parent.
Many criminal cases involve the application of scientific principles to the observation, collection, processing and interpretation of evidence; this is known as forensics.
In the wake of the Obergefell and DeBoer cases decided last June by the SCOTUS, our appellate courts here in Michigan have issued recent rulings in a case involving a same-sex couple’s custody battle. The case is Stankevich v Milliron and comes to us from Dickenson County Family Court in the Upper Peninsula, along the southern shores of Lake Michigan.
A very significant grandparents’ rights case was decided by the Michigan Court of Appeals last month. The case, arising from Washtenaw County, has tested the constitutional implications of the Grandparent Visitation Act...
According to the catechism of the Catholic church, a divorced person is forbidden from receiving the sacrament of holy communion unless they have their marriage annulled.
The Department of Justice under President Obama has stood down from conducting prosecutions of local pot farmers in the wake of decriminalization, medical marijuana laws, and outright legalization. That is why the recent conviction of a Marshal man claiming a First Amendment freedom of religion right is surprising.
Our law firm has experience representing students and young people in charges known as “minor in possession” of alcohol. It is a misdemeanor for a person under the age of 21 to possess or consume alcohol.
Many times, representing parents in custody disputes, our lawyers note the blurred lines between parenting time and custody. Legal concepts such as the existence of an “established custodial environment”, legal and physical custody...
Occasionally, we have experienced cases where a parent is continually running to Child Protective Services to lodge a series of baseless or minor complaints against the other parent.
Often, we see parents reassess their entire lives and make a series of rapid significant life-changes in the wake of divorce. Changing jobs, counties, even states, is common.
Sometimes, a judge is just looking for some cheap professional attention. That’s what we suspect occurred this week when a Tennessee family court judge cited the SCOTUS marriage equality decision, among other reasons, as the stated basis for denying an elderly couple’s divorce. After hearing from 7 witnesses and considering dozens of exhibits over 4-days, Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffrey Atherton refused to grant the divorce sought by the litigants. And now, perhaps by the Chancellor’s design, here comes his 15-minutes of ill-conceived fame. In denying the requested relief upon completion of the proofs, the Chancellor stated that because of the SCOTUS decision in Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court now needed to clarify, “when a marriage is no longer a marriage.” The judge’s reasoning is flawed to the extent that whatever our High Court has defined as a fundamental right within the context of marriage has nothing relevant to do with a state law divorce proceeding. Chancellor Atherton further concluded that because the SCOTUS has deemed Tennesseans incompetent to define the central institution of marriage, he is somehow judicially hamstrung on the performance of his sworn duties. Those duties would include presiding over and resolving a contested divorce proceeding through a judgment. What the…? Is this guy trying to match wits with Kim Davis over in Kentucky? Divorce proceedings rarely go to trial. When they do, one of the findings a family court judge is required to make is whether the objects of matrimony have been destroyed such that there is no reasonable likelihood the marriage can be repaired; the ole “irreconcilable differences”. Usually, the simple fact that a complaint for divorce was filed is sufficient. To properly conduct a divorce trial, the family court judge makes factual findings in the case -usually about the parties’ property in a case like this, without children. Also, the judge makes legal decisions based on the fact findings, like whether alimony is appropriate. Then, the judge must issue a judgment of divorce setting forth the findings of fact and conclusions of law. In this case, after 4-days of testimony, Chancellor Atherton concluded the marriage could be salvaged and hoped the couple reconciled. It appears to us, however, that this couple has become victim to the judge’s personal desire to grab headlines by stating his political differences with the Obergefell marriage equality decision. Divorce is difficult enough for couples without this form of petulant judicial grandstanding. We will continue to monitor this case in order to see what “work around” is utilized to correct this judge’s harmful error. In blogging about the marriage equality civil rights movement over the past decade, we predicted that, if the SCOTUS established a fundamental right to marriage, as it did in Obergefell, there would be plenty of fallout; instances where people in positions of power, like this county judge in Tennessee and like the court clerk in Kentucky, simply refuse to obey the law of the land.
Here at Clarkston Legal, we see many custody battles unfold in the family court. Over the years, our law firm has developed experience in the defense and the prosecution of child custody battles; we have become students of the industry.
A defendant in Jackson County was tried for murder in the 2010 death of his 3-month old son. The prosecutor’s theory was that the father caused his infant son’s death by shaking him or throwing him against a wall.
If the parties to a divorce do not settle their divorce, then a family court will decide the issues in the case, including spousal support and whether income should be imputed to a non-earning spouse. The court’s decision is discretionary thus, what the court orders will stand unless that powerful discretion is somehow abused; that is precisely what happened in Loutts v Loutts regarding the issue of alimony.
Often, our law firm represents someone accused of criminal sexual conduct. In such cases, one of the penalties is being listed on the sex offender registry -known as SORA in the industry- as a component of the sentence.
We lawyers are not supposed to be soliciting anyway, as it is expressly prohibited in the Rules of Professional Conduct. But over the years, a small group of divorce lawyers, unable to get clients any other way...
