Child Custody. There are two types custody: Legal and physical. Legal custody involves decisions about things like school, religion, and important medical decisions. Physical custody typically describes who the parent lives with primarily. Most parents have joint legal custody and need to share the big decisions about the child. If they are unable to agree on what school the child attends or if braces are necessary, then the Court will decide for them. Day to day decisions for the kids are made by the parent who has the parenting time on that day. There are a dozen legal factors which are used to determine custody and there are technical legal thresholds that have to be met in order to change custody. It is critical that your lawyer knows these factors and the Michigan case law interpreting them. One more thing, and this is just to clear up an urban myth that is out there, joint custody does not mean that you don’t have to pay child support.
Child Support. Michigan has a child support formula used to calculate child support. It takes into consideration each parent’s income, the parenting time schedule, day care, medical expenses and insurance, and tax exemptions. Child support is paid until the child reaches the age of 18 or graduates from high school, whichever occurs later, but in no event beyond the age of 19 1/2. Experienced divorce attorneys have the same program used by the courts to calculate child support and can give you a pretty close estimate of what it will be. Child support may be modified upon a change of circumstances such as income or parenting time changes. Failure to pay can result in loss of a driver’s license, loss of a passport, seizure of tax refunds, and even felony charges and jail time.
Parenting Time. Parenting time, also known as visitation, lays out the schedule that each parent spends with the children. Parenting time needs to promote a strong relationship with each parent. It can be very specific stating exact times, weekdays, holidays and vacation periods or it can be very loosely defined as “reasonable and liberal” which allows the parents to work out the details. It really depends on how well the parents can work together after the breakup of the marriage. Like custody and child support, the Court retains jurisdiction over parenting time if the parents can’t reach an agreement.
Paternity. For unmarried individuals with children, it is essential that paternity be established in order to ensure that the correct father is responsible for child support and has a parenting time schedule which allows a relationship with the child. Without paternity, the mother is given sole legal custody of the child and the father does not have the right to parenting time or participate in custodial decisions. Also, if paternity has not been established, there is no obligation to pay or the right to receive child support.