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This is a follow up to my last blog where I suggested that you and your soon-to-be-ex, write a letter to your children about a parenting schedule that puts their interests before your own. Well, this is a follow-up to that letter. Here we assume you have a parenting plan in place. The question is,
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So you would like to mediate your divorce, but you think you’ll have a hard time convincing your spouse to go along. I’m assuming he or she is ready to end the marriage as well and having a conversation about how to do it won’t be a surprise. Here are some opening lines that might
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Today is December 26th. Unfortunately this is the first day of a 10 day surge in online searches for information about divorce. So says an article in last Sunday’s New York Times. If you’re reading this blog then you’re among the group making that search. Naturally, my advice is to consider Mediation over contested divorce
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It seems these days that everyone I know wants to be a mediator. That’s fine. Mediation is a more civilized way to resolve disputes, including divorce and elder care family problems, than a knock-down, dragged out court battle. As a West Michigan mediator I’ve had the opportunity to participate in excellent training programs at both
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Last Sunday, January 19,2014, the New York Times ran an interesting article in its Sunday Style section on Page 15. The article is titled: “In a Confrontation, a Secret is Revealed.” It’s about a couple whose marriage fell apart after the husband told his wife that he was gay and had been having affairs with
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Here’s a divorce question for you: Do you want to litigate your divorce or mediate it? Why do I ask, you say. Let’s put it another way, choose A or B: A. Do you want to see your money put the divorce attorneys’ kids through college? B. Do you want to see your money put
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Now there is an interesting title for a man who makes his living as a divorce mediator! One of my mediator colleagues told me the other day that a former client of hers had been heard at the Family Court telling the referee that she (the mediator) hadn’t calculated his portion of his wife’s retirement
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The March 2011 issue of the Michigan Family Law Journal features an article by Carole Chiamp, a Detroit mediator and attorney, that compares the outcomes of 400 divorce cases; half of which were mediatied and the other half litigated. There are several useful conclusions for you to take from the article, especially if you’re considering
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On its face, calculating child support might seem to be a simple matter. Go to the Michigan Child Support Formula online, plug in the actual incomes of each party, calculate the number of overnights, adjust for union dues, child care, health insurance, etc., and up comes the number. True enough, but you can create some long