Can A Family Attorney Get Kids Back From CPS? – Part II
In Part I, we discussed the first part of any CPS investigation — the part where they do their best to prove that you\’re a horrible parent, potentially using all kinds of tricks that would get the police in huge trouble if they did the same thing. But what if it\’s too late, and you\’ve […]
Can A Family Attorney Get Kids Back From CPS? – Part I
When Child Protective Services (CPS) takes your children away from you, it\’s always because there\’s a suspicion of abuse or neglect. No matter how unlikely the facts, CPS is obligated to investigate every complaint they receive about abuse or neglect, and if they have any reason to believe it would be better for the children, […]
Does Child Support Change When Child Custody Changes?
One of the more commonplace activities for a Michigan family law office is helping divorced parents who have had significant life changes get their child custody orders modified. For example, a divorced father who was denied custody due to alcoholism may ask the court to reconsider after staying sober for 2 years — that\’s a […]
Alternative Custody Arrangements 101, Pt II
(Continued from this post about alternative custody arrangements.) As useful as custom custody arrangements are, they do have issues all their own. We try to ensure that all of our clients understand these dangers before they put their name on a custom custody agreement. Everything Changes The biggest hiccup with custom custody is that your child […]
Alternative Custody Arrangements 101, Pt 1
We put up an article a couple weeks back about \’nesting,\’ an alternative custody arrangement in which the kids remain in one home while the parents move in and out. That got us a small flurry of questions about other alternative custody arrangements, so we figured we should just put up another couple of posts […]
Alternative Custody Arrangements: Nesting
\’Nesting\’ or \’Bird\’s-Nest Parenting\’ is an unusual custody arrangement that is uniquely focused on the good of the children, and involves some extraordinary sacrifice on the part of the separated parents. In short, the children stay in one home, and the parents move in and out when their custody schedule dictates a shift in parenting […]
How to Accept Losing Custody Of Your Child
Custody battles are often very challenging, not because they are difficult (though they are), but because they literally challenge our views of ourselves and our lives. We tell ourselves a story about how our live is and how it is going, and we argue vehemently against any narrative that portrays us in a less positive […]
Move Fast If Your Baby’s Momma Is Putting Him Up
A Court of Appeals upheld a trial court\’s decision to deny a father the right to deny his child\’s adoption on the 5th of this month. The father had filed a motion to stay his child\’s adoption by a couple — an adoption the mother filed for upon the child\’s birth. The motion was denied […]
How Far Must My Child Slide Before I File for Custody?
We recently had lunch with a few of our associates, and as usual we talked shop while we hit up the coffee and sandwiches. One of the interesting questions that came up: \”A client of mine recently came to me with a written letter from his son\’s teacher saying that his son had started failing […]
Child Custody for the Information Age: Virtual Visitation
Modern custody agreements, like modern parents, are adapting to the smartphone culture faster than the law can keep up. For example, many modern custody agreements now offer a section referring to \’virtual visitation\’ in the same terms that normal physical visitation is. The courts in general support this idea, as it\’s generally considered to strengthen […]
Explaining the Friend of the Court
Most people don\’t realize that a Michigan divorce with children involved actually involves two separate elements of the Family Court system. The first is the obvious: the Circuit Court judge that oversees the overt elements of your divorce (i.e. the division of assets and the custody arrangements). The second is more subtle, but arguably more […]
Clearing Up Custody: Legal vs. Physical and Sole vs. Joint
There are a lot of misunderstandings that happen in conversations about custody. A large part of that it because people don\’t really understand that \’custody\’ is not a complete legal concept in and of itself. Instead, it\’s broken up into two parts: legal custody, and physical custody. Physical Custody is the term used to describe […]