Brighton Family Law Blog

From ruining industries to taking on too much debt, millennials in Michigan tend to take a lot of flak for their life choices. However, there may not be much to criticize in the latest industry they are accused of disrupting -- the divorce industry. For a number of reasons, this generation of young adults are encountering fewer family law issues than their parents.

Between 2008 and 2016, the divorce rate fell by 18 percent. While some think that fewer divorces is the result of fewer marriages, experts caution against this assumption. Instead, it may be down to millennials attitudes toward marriage. While baby boomers tended to marry young no matter their life circumstances, many young adults today first establish themselves in their careers before going on to tie the knot. So what does having a career have to do with declining divorce rates?

Thinking of marriage as "till death do us part" is a nice sentiment, but it is not always a reality. Divorce is a part of life that many people in Michigan will have to deal with, and it is usually best to be prepared. Prenuptial agreements are helpful in this manner as they can lay the groundwork for addressing complicated family law issues. 

While it might not seem like an issue to marry a partner who has considerably fewer assets, potential problems can arise during divorce. As young adults tend to put off marriage, many have the time to accumulate valuable property, such as real estate, vehicles, retirement savings and more. Conversely, there is also time to build up large amounts of debt. A prenup can clearly define which assets and debts are whose and how they should be handled during a divorce. 

The average Michigan family probably looks much different than it did 10 or 20 years ago. Not only do many households now have two adults working outside of the home, but family law issues are changing too. Joint custody is increasingly the norm in cases of divorced parents, but that has some questioning how they should handle child support issues. 

In general, child support is usually paid by the noncustodial parent -- often the father -- to the parent with primary physical custody. Now that research has demonstrated that most kids fare better after divorce when their parents choose a joint custody arrangement, the idea of what child support should be is changing. In many ways it is seen as an equalizer, especially when the higher earning parent is the one who pays. 

Michigan police arrested a woman believed to have been involved in a deadly drunk driving collision. Although she allegedly fled the scene of the crime, authorities were able to locate the suspected driver a short while later. Crafting a strong criminal defense is essential when facing serious charges such as these. 

The hit-and-run accident happened shortly before 4 p.m., when witnesses say they saw a woman strike a bicyclist with her vehicle. Instead of stopping, she fled the scene. The witnesses who were at the scene of the wreck provided police with license plate information for the SUV, which they then used to track down the suspect later that same day.