Kimm 0:00 Hi, this is Conversations With Kimm and today we are talking about divorce without children. Sarah 0:08 There are some misunderstandings around marriage and divorce in the state of Michigan. What are they? Kimm 0:13 There are a lot of misconceptions about divorce in the state of Michigan, many dealing with legal separations or common-law marriages. So, in Michigan, we do not recognize common law marriage, meaning if you've lived together for so many years with this person, you're deemed legally married. California does, but Michigan does not. So you're just out. You're just dating. Basically, there is no such thing as a legal separation. You separate from your partner. You separate from your partner. You just could still be legally liable for anything that they do. That's things of that nature. Sarah 0:49 What are the two kinds of divorce in Michigan? Kimm 0:52 In Michigan, there are two different types of divorce claims that you can make. The first is an actual full-on divorce, which means that you go through, you divide your assets, your debts, and at the end, you are legally divorced. You are no longer tied to that person. But then there is separate maintenance. And separate maintenance just means that you do the same thing as a divorce. You go through, you separate all your assets and the debts. However, at the end, you're still legally married to that person. So, under the eyes of the law, you're still married. A lot of people do that. For two purposes. The biggest one is for religious reasons, because under their religion, they frown on divorce, that you can't get divorced. So this kind of loopholes that little clause that they have. And the other big one is for insurance purposes. A lot of parties, one spouse may have really good insurance, and so they don't want to lose that benefit. So they will stay on that. However, understand that if you were to file for a separate maintenance, because you want to do that thing. And the spouse says, you know, if we're doing this, I want to be divorced. I don't want to be tied to you anymore. Then they can file for a counterclaim for divorce, which then would make the whole thing a divorce and you will be legally divorced. In the end, you wouldn't have a choice. Sarah 2:07 What are the steps that should be taken when someone has decided to get divorced? Kimm 2:11 In order to get divorced, once you've decided that's what you want to do, there's obviously the paperwork that has to be filled out to file that with a court, and you get the other party served. And then kind of the wheels start going. Hearings are set, your dates for trials are set. So that way, hopefully, you can get everything worked out in Michigan. To get divorced, the statutory timeframe to wait is 60 days. So it's not a long time. But hopefully, you can get everything done and decided within that time period, and you can get divorced. If you don't agree on things, then that could get drug out. So there is no set rule; you will be divorced in one year or you'll be divorced in 60 days; it just depends on each case. So it just depends. Sarah 2:56 What if both parties do not want to get divorced? Kimm 2:59 If somebody files for divorce and they start going through the process, and they decide that during this wait period, that they're working things out, they're going to counseling, or you know, they decide, "You know what, this was a mistake, I really don't want to be divorced from my spouse," you can file a notice with the court; it's called a notice of reconciliation. So basically, you're telling the court that you want the case to stop and be dismissed because you are now going to reconcile. And so you can do that. Understanding, sometimes what happens is they do that, and after a few months of trying to work together again, they figure out they can't do it. So under the law, if you file that notice of reconciliation, you have a certain timeframe in which you can go back into the court and say, "You know what? I was wrong. We can't reconcile. So I want to go forward with the divorce." And it can't. If you don't meet that timeframe, you'll have to start all over again. Sarah 3:52 What happens between the two parties while the divorce is in progress? Kimm 3:57 So one big question we get is, kind of, what do we do while we're waiting for this time period to run? And the hope is that you can work together talk together to figure out how to best to divide your assets and your debts, your house, your cars, your bank accounts, your retirements. And so you kind of just waiting a lot of the times, if things come up with problems with a spouse, where you two were living together in the same house, but now you can't know who's going to move out. You can ask the court to order somebody to move out. That is one option. And basically, it's just waiting and trying to figure out what to do, and hopefully you can communicate well enough with each other to get it resolved. If not, then you know, obviously, attorneys can get involved to help try to resolve those issues for you. Sarah 4:41 What is spousal support? Kimm 4:44 We get a lot of requests for spousal support where one spouse feels the other spouse should be paying them to live off of. We get some. I had one where the lady thought she should still get spousal support even though she's living with her new boyfriend. So that was a no. Basically, spousal support is just a way to help equalize between the partners to help one partner get on their feet and get going. Because a divorce obviously, is a really a financial hardship on people, because you're used to two incomes or one income and the other person stays at home. And so, it really, you know, turns everything upside down. So the court can look at a number of different factors. If you have one spouse that's making a great deal of money and the other spouse is a stay-at-home mom, let's say, then the courts gonna look at saying she should be given something to help her get back on her feet. Now, there are a number of different things the court looks at when we're seeing a spousal support should be awarded, you know, the age of the parties, their health, how long they've been married, you know, their needs, their ability to pay for things of that nature. So if you don't agree, the court will make that determination of if you should have some and if so, for how long. Now, one of the biggest things they're saying, "Well, I've been married for 10 years, I get it." And that's not true. You know, the court, that's one of the factors, the length of the term of the marriage. However, again, like in California, if you two have been married 10 years, I get it no matter what. And then if not, here's why Michigan doesn't do that. There are a number of different factors, like I just said, that come into play when determining whether support should be awarded or not. Sarah 6:28 Do both parties need to hire an attorney? Kimm 6:31 Parties don't need to have an attorney as far as a divorce or any civil litigation goes. Sometimes it's helpful to help kind of work through what are your rights? What are your options? You know, what are you actually entitled to, but you're not required to I always say, if nothing else, if you don't hire an attorney, if nothing else, at least go see one before you file your judgment and divorce, because you may be thinking you're doing this completely right. And there are things in there that are not right or not worded right. And so when you go back and say, "Well, that's not what we meant," It's too bad, so sad, because that's what you wrote. And that's what the court is going off of. So it's always good to talk to an attorney, at least to verify Yes, this is what you want. Because once you sign that, especially with the financial provisions, you cannot go back and change them later. They are what they are, unless you guys are in agreement to something different. So that's the problem we always get, is you've just worded something really wrong. Sarah 7:31 And what can someone do if they have any questions about divorce? Kimm 7:35 If you have any questions about divorce, just give us a call 517-797-6021 or you can email me at office@kburgerlaw.com.