Changes in Child Custody Laws to Help Abuse Victims

Earlier this year, a number of measures passed that make divorce proceedings much easier on abuse victims, and we realized we hadn’t made a post about them, and that seemed like an oversight on our part. So we’re here to rectify the situation by summarizing the measures and their impacts today!

The Measures, Summarized

• HB4476: Prevents the court from forcing a person into mediation with their spouse if that person has a protection order or an open case for abuse against their spouse.
• HB4477: Provides alternative ways for the court to serve abuse victims so as to prevent their address from becoming a matter of public record (which could allow their abuser to find them easily).
• HB4478: Includes pets and companion animals in the scope of protection orders.
• HB4479 and 4488: Make penalties for domestic violence harsher if the abuser knew the victim was pregnant at the time of abuse.
• HB4481: Alters the standard of evidence required to prevent a rapist from obtaining custody of a child of their rape, from requiring an actual criminal conviction for rape to providing the family court with “clear and convincing” evidence of rape.
• HB4480: Excludes actions taken to protect children from an abusive parent from consideration during custody and visitation hearings.

The Impacts of 4476, 4477, and 4478
The first thing to recognize here is that, if you’re an abuse victim, you are the victim of horrific psychological manipulation. It’s never as simple as “s/he’s an abusive jerk, get out of there!” Abusers twist your entire reality around until you come to think of yourself as the damaged one in the relationship, and they know how to trigger those feelings with something as simple as a glance or a few clipped words. That’s why it’s so important to be able to keep an abuse victim away from their abuser — which these measures allow the court to do.

By allowing an abused spouse to skip court-ordered mediation, the abuser has no chance to get under their skin and try to flip the divorce proceedings. By preventing their address from becoming public record, they make it much more difficult for an abuser to violate a protection order and inflict more damage on their spouse. And by preventing an abuser from being able to legally access pets and protection animals, they remove one more potential channel by which the abuser can harm their victim.

The Impacts of 4479, 4480, 4481, and 4488
Not too long ago, being a mother and a victim of domestic abuse at the same time was a recipe for a huge amount of trauma at the hands of the court itself. Imagine going to court after your husband raped you, beat you senseless while you were pregnant, and then finally filed for divorce after you bore your child — but decided he was going to keep the child. Now imagine that the court wouldn’t regard the child as a child of rape because your husband wasn’t currently in jail for rape, that there were no added legal repercussions for your husband kicking you in the gut while you were pregnant, and that your (brave!) attempt to whisk your children away from their abusive father was being used to give that rapist custody of child you tried to protect.

That’s an extreme example, but not an unrealistic one. Cases like that come through the family courts a-few-to-several times every year, in every county. These measures are an enormous step forward in Michigan’s treatment of abuse victims in family court, and they deserve an enormous round of thanks directed at our Legislature.