Posted on March 28, 2019 in Divorce

Divorce affects your family in many ways, but children are often the most affected by divorce. Children benefit from having both parents in their lives, even if their parents are not together anymore, so it is beneficial to develop a co-parenting plan with your ex. 

A co-parenting plan will expressly state a few key things about the development of your child or children, and it is always a good idea to have it in writing so you can refer back to it later. After the divorce, you may not want to keep in contact with your ex, but it will help your children if you can be civil with each other. A parenting plan will help everyone stay on the same page about child custody matters.

Areas To Focus On In Your Plan

Your parenting plan will be your guide for what you and your ex-spouse will handle parenting decisions as your child grows. It is important to have some main focus areas, which can vary depending on your situation, but generally, there are five key areas to focus on. 

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 Posted on March 22, 2019 in Divorce

Divorce changes the lives of many people in numerous ways. Determining child support, dividing assets, and setting child custody schedules are all normal parts of the divorce process. When you have children, you will also need to consider how to handle the changes your divorce causes with regard to your taxes. There are a few things you have to keep in mind when filing your taxes after a divorce, including what to do about claiming a child as a dependent and your filing status. 

Custodial vs. Noncustodial

The custodial parent is the parent the child spends the greatest portion of time with during the year, and the noncustodial parent is the parent the child spends the lesser amount of time with. The custodial or noncustodial status will most likely affect how you file your taxes after the divorce. The most common practice is for the custodial parent to claim the child as a dependent on their taxes, but it is possible for the noncustodial parent to claim a child as a dependent. The custodial parent needs to sign a form that they will not claim the child as a dependent, and the noncustodial parent also has to fill out a form. Both parents cannot claim the child as a dependent for the same year. 

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 Posted on March 14, 2019 in Divorce

Divorce is an issue that many people will have in their lives and talking about it is not an easy task, especially when you have to tell your children about it. Handling the stress and emotions in your divorce may be worsened by apprehension about how you are going to tell your children and what their reaction will be to the news. However, you can make the conversation as easy as possible by following these simple tips to make the conversation as smooth as possible in the circumstances. 

Tell the Children Together

It will be easiest to tell all the children together and tell them with your significant other. Telling all the children the news while they are in the same room will let you and your significant other answer any questions the children may have where they can hear your answers to questions their siblings are asking. It is also best to tell them with your significant other and frame the divorce as something you both decided would be best. If you tell them alone and blame your significant other, you are poisoning them against their parent, which is not a good thing. Even if you can not stand your significant other, having two parents in their lives and working together to raise them will help your children greatly. 

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 Posted on March 07, 2019 in Divorce

If you have children and are considering divorce, you may wonder what will happen if you decide to move away from the child’s home. Relocation is sometimes necessary after a divorce, but it should only be done after careful consideration because it can affect the parenting plan for children. Traditionally, visitation after divorce has been in-person visitation, but recently, the increase in the availability of technology has made it possible to have virtual visitation with children as a substitute. 

What Is Virtual Visitation?

Virtual visitation is the practice of using technology-related means to have contact with your child or children. The most common way of doing this is usually considered to be a phone call, but virtual visitation is not limited to a phone call. Emails, text messages, and video chats are all different forms of virtual visitation that can be implemented to allow parents to stay in touch with their children after the divorce. 

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 Posted on February 28, 2019 in Divorce

Many people who get divorced are very much used to being married. They are used to having a partner to share their life with, and they are used to being in a relationship, rather than being alone. It makes sense then that those going through divorce can be scared to be alone. 

It helps to view a divorce as a turning point in your life, a decision you made because not being married was a better option than being married. Instead of being afraid of being alone, you should learn to cherish and be comfortable with being alone. After your divorce, you should seek to enjoy life. Here are 4 tips you can use to help you do that:

1. Be Social

The easiest way to make sure you are happy and healthy after your divorce is by making sure you are keeping yourself surrounded by friends and family. These people are your support team, and it is important that you do not try to withdraw yourself socially. Say yes when your friends ask you to go out to dinner and take your kids to your parents’ house for visits often. Keeping yourself surrounded by love and happiness is key.

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 Posted on February 22, 2019 in Divorce

Getting a divorce can be financially costly. With court costs, filing fees and attorney’s fees, the expenses can add up quickly. These are in addition to any other financial issues you may be facing as a result of the divorce, like the monetary impact of going from two incomes to one and selling your shared home. 

Divorce can put a financial strain on even the most affluent couples, and it is not uncommon for people to come out of a divorce with debt or damaged credit. Having good credit is key for obtaining loans for things such as homes or cars, so having a good credit score is pretty important after you are divorced. 

Here are a few tips to help you rebuild your credit after your divorce:

Keep a Budget

The first thing you should do after your divorce is figuring out what your new budget is. Prior to your divorce, you may have had two incomes to support your family. Now that you are single, you are only working with one income for all of your expenses. Make sure you have budgeted enough for you to pay all of your bills and still have some left over for savings.

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 Posted on February 15, 2019 in Divorce

In many cases, the decision to get married is an easy and simple one. The decision to get a divorce, however, does not come that easily. Sometimes it can take months and even years for you to finally come to the decision that you are ready to end your marriage. Marriages do not just break -- they slowly erode and deteriorate over time, often giving off many warning signs that it is time to call it quits. Many times couples make the decision to divorce after years of unhappiness, resulting in heated and highly-contested divorces. 

Here are four warning signs that you may want to consider a divorce:

1. Your Needs Are Not Being Met

A successful marriage is one in which both partners’ needs are being met. Each partner should be doing his or her best to meet the physical and emotional needs of the other. If you notice that you and your spouse are not meeting each other’s needs or that the relationship has become rather one-sided, it may be a sign that your marriage is deteriorating.

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 Posted on February 10, 2019 in Family Law

The only way a child’s paternity is automatically established in Michigan is if the mother was married at the time the child was conceived or born. The man the woman was or is married to is automatically presumed by the state of Michigan to be the child’s legal father. If the mother was unmarried when the child was conceived or born, then the parents of the child must take extra steps to establish a legal father for the child. This process can be wrought with confusion and stress, but it is necessary to ensure that your child has the resources he or she needs to thrive.

Benefits of Establishing Paternity

There are many reasons why people work to establish the paternity of their children. Without established paternity, there is no legal tie between a father and his child, even if it is truly his biological child. Other benefits of establishing paternity include:

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 Posted on January 30, 2019 in Divorce

The first worry on many parents’ minds when they decide they will get a divorce is how that will affect their children. Divorce can be hard for everyone in the family, but it can be especially hard on children. Depending on your child’s age, they may not understand what a divorce means and what it means for them. Each child is different, so it is hard to predict a child’s reaction to divorce, but much of their reaction depends on how you, as a parent, communicate and nurture your child during this trying time. Here are a few ways you can help ease your children into the change that a divorce brings:

1. Break the News in an Appropriate Way

When initially telling your children about your divorce, it is important that you keep things simple. Your 6-year-old child does not need to know that you are getting a divorce because your spouse has a habit of lying. Keep things simple by phrasing things like “Mommy and daddy are just not happy anymore, but a divorce will make mommy, daddy and you happier.” Older children may require a bit more detail, but the sentiment should be the same.

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 Posted on January 23, 2019 in Divorce

When you think about a divorce, you probably think of long, drawn out processes, yelling matches in the courtroom and ultimately being unhappy with the outcome. While Hollywood does a good job of painting a dramatic and intriguing picture of divorce, it is rarely like it is in the movies. The truth is, there is more than one way to get a divorce and not all of them are litigated in a courtroom as television shows would have you to believe. Two of the alternative forms of divorce -- mediation and collaborative divorce -- offer unique methods to part ways with your spouse. Collaborative divorce, in particular, offers many benefits over the traditional litigated divorce. Here are a few ways a collaborative divorce can benefit you and your family:

1. It Can Save You Money

One of the big benefits of a collaborative divorce is the financial aspect of it. Many people are drawn to collaborative divorce because you usually spend about half as much as a litigated divorce and about a quarter of what you would pay if your divorce went to trial. Collaborative divorces save you from an abundance of lawyer’s fees, court costs, discovery fees and other hidden costs of divorce.

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