This post examines the importance of retaining an expert witness for the defense to secure a fair trial by Sixth Amendment standards. The post uses a recently decided case to highlight the issue.
Our law firm tracks innovations designed to improve payment of child support. Recently, a new child support program caught our attention.
Pets are considered property in divorce, to be divided in the settlement agreement. If the parties do not agree on how the family pets are to be divided, family court judges take into account a variety of factors to make this difficult decision.
Despite marital equality, same-sex partners and parenting time pose significant problems for unmarried couples. Often, specific cases highlight the heartbreak that comes with uncertainty in the law.
Jeeze, sorry about that headline. Nothing, however, quite captures the spirit of our time as our teen-aged youth.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” –Voltaire This post asks, from a forensic standpoint, just how sure are you,
POLST is an end-of-life planning approach or outlook that emphasizes a dying or critically ill patient’s preference relative to the type of care they receive. The movement is sweeping the country and is currently under active consideration by the Michigan Legislature.
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.
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