Divorced Parents and Moving Out of Michigan

Many divorced parents with custody of children are considering moving out of Michigan in order to accept new employment. Many times these parents are required to move out of the state in order to find acceptable employment to support their families. This issue becomes complicated when it involves minor children and the parents share joint legal or physical custody. I recently discussed this issue with a friend whose ex-wife was planning to move from Rochester Hills, Michigan to Ohio.

In cases where the divorced parents share joint legal custody, which is true in almost all cases, any party moving more than 100 miles or out of Michigan, even if less than 100 miles, must obtain court approval before they are allowed to move. This includes the non-custodial parent, so that even if one is not have primary physical custody they must still obtain court approval before they move if they share joint legal custody.

The party that wishes to move, must basically show by a preponderance of the evidence, which in laymen’s terms means, a little more likely than not, that they have met statutory requirements.  This issue becomes even more complicated if the parents share joint physical custody of the child or the court decides that there is an established custodial environment with both parents.

If the parents share joint physical custody of a child, then after the court determines that a parent may move by a preponderance of evidence, the court must then make a decision regarding the change of custody. If the court finds that from the view of the children the move would change the custodial environment, then the court must make a decision regarding a change of custody.

The idea of a custodial environment means that even if the parents do not actually share physical custody the following problems regarding a change of custody may apply if over an appreciable period of time the child looks to both parents for love, affection, guidance and other similar types of parental support.

If the court finds that there is an established custodial environment with both parents as described above, the court will revisit the custody issue and the parent that wants to move must prove that it is in the child’s best interests to change custody by a clear and convincing evidence standard, which is significantly more stringent than the preponderance of evidence standard indicated above.

The best interests of the child is really a list of 11 different factors and a catch all phrase of any other factors that the court deems relevant. This may be very difficult for a parent to prove and if the parent does not, then despite the finding that the above factors have been met allowing the move, the court will change custody of the child to the parent that is not moving. This is true even where the child spent more time at the home of the parent that proposes the move so long as the court finds there is an established custodial environment with both parents. This may not seem fair to a parent that is moving because they cannot find employment, however, the focus is on the children, not the parent that is facing the hardship.

None of the above applies if the parents do not share joint legal custody. Unfortunately this means that if one is going through a divorce and there is a good reason to believe that they will have to move for employment or other reasons, it would be prudent to fight for sole legal custody for the parent that is contemplating such a move.

E-mail, Privacy and Divorce in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Tips for Avoiding Confrontation or Being Charged With a Crime

Reading a spouse’s e-mail and discovering information that might lead to a divorce has been considered a crime in Rochester Hills, Michigan by the Oakland County Prosecutor. An article by L.L. Brasier in the Detroit Free Press, December 28, 2010 reported this issue.


First, to those people that are engaged in some activity or communication of any type (including consulting with a divorce lawyer) of which they do not want their significant others or family members to have knowledge please read the following tips to avoid being discovered by your spouse.

• If you are going to communicate by e-mail, you should make sure to change passwords for the account frequently and not write the password down anywhere that your spouse has access.

• It is not a good idea to post anything negative about your spouse or an affair on Facebook or other social sites for many reasons. One reason is that if you post a comment and then someone that has your spouse as a “friend” in their Facebook account makes a comment about your comment then that will post both to your spouse’s (or ex-spouse’s) Facebook page.

• It is also not a good idea to text someone you do not want your spouse to know that you are contacting, take pictures on your phone of any activity that you do not want your spouse to see or even call someone that you do not want your spouse to know you have contacted. People often leave their mobile communication devices around where their spouse or significant other may have access to it and it is very easy to see what numbers have been called recently and redial any that seem suspicious.

Regarding the case above, I cannot tell you how often in my practice over the last fourteen years that I have heard of one married person reading their spouse’s e-mail, social networking site, mobile phone or even their mail after suspecting that they were having an affair.
In the above case the husband took the issue one step further and provided the letter to father of his wife’s child because the person with whom she was having an affair had reportedly beaten her in front of this child. This passing on of the information to the third party is probably what caused the prosecutor to even consider charging him. If it was merely a case of reading the e-mail and confronting his spouse, then there is really no way that this should have been a charge against him.

As it stands, it still seems somewhat ridiculous for the prosecutor to charge him with a crime, as the two lived together at the time, they both used the laptop computer that he used to obtain access to her email account, and the wife apparently left her passwords for different accounts in an unguarded notebook next to the computer. Further, the prosecutor has apparently charged him under a “hacking statute”, which seems unrelated to domestic relationships.

The temptation when someone has suspicion of extramarital activities to snoop in general or particularly to access the e-mail or Facebook account of their significant others is simply too great, especially where the person knows the password or the password is written down in an accessible spot. Charging this man with a crime really opens a massive can of worms that should be left shut. How many people that have gone through a divorce or are currently going through a divorce where this type of information was used against them are going to be contacting the prosecutor at this point and where does she draw the line?

Finally, if the prosecutor starts prosecuting these types of cases, then there are going to be very many people that are technically breaking the law when they access the e-mail or mobile phone of their spouse, possibly even in inadvertent or relatively innocent cases. For example, your spouse leaves his telephone at home open to his photo album and you look through the album expecting to see some nice pictures of your children, but instead you are confronted of him posing with a woman that you do not know. Does this make you guilty of a crime?

I do not recommend that anyone have an affair, however, it seems foolish to open oneself to this easy exposure by using the mobile telephone for any of the above activities. Think hard before engaging in this type of activity anyway, because the joy one may get from it may be short lasted and the damage that it may cause if discovered can be huge and irreparable. In Rochester Hills Michigan it appears that accessing your spouse’s e-mail or even their mobile phone may not only lead to divorce, but also to criminal charges.

Please visit my website for more information regarding divorce or family law at http://camerongoulding.com/default.aspx


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