Wendy Alton now certified in Collaborative Divorce

Attorney Wendy Alton is now trained and certified in Collaborative Divorce Law.  Collaborative Divorce is an out-of-court process for resolving the emotional, financial, and legal aspects of a divorce.  The divorcing couple commits to hiring a team of collaborative professionals who then work with the couple throughout a series of meetings in order to develop a mutually agreeable durable settlement.  

The collaborative process requires full disclosures of all financial issues, a commitment to stay out of court, and the engagement of a team of two collaboratively trained attorneys (one for each spouse), a neutral mental health professional (divorce coach), and a neutral financial specialist.  This collaborative approach allows the divorcing couple to utilize the professional collaborative team as necessary to work through emotional, financial, and legal issues within the divorce, and successfully reach a workable settlement that they both can comfortably agree to.  While the collaborative process is not for everyone, it can be a successful way for some couples to divorce more amicably. 

Wendy Alton is also a trained and certified family law mediator and a trial attorney with over 17 years of experience. If you have questions about the divorce process, contact Wendy and she can explain the options available to you, including traditional litigation, negotiated settlement, mediation, arbitration, and collaborative divorce.

Divorcing in Michigan Now requires Full Financial Disclosures

Divorces can be expensive, especially when one spouse has to conduct extensive discovery, or in other words, send the other spouse numerous requests for information about their income and assets.  While some spouses do openly share this type of information, some do not, and that lack of sharing of information can be one of the leading causes of higher attorney fees.

The Michigan Supreme Court, however, has recently revised three Michigan Court Rules in order to streamline and simplify the exchange of financial information in divorces.  Effective January 1, 2020, divorcing spouses must now automatically provide full financial disclosures under oath of their employment, income, assets and debts.  They are also limited in the type of discovery they can use, and discovery use or abuse can be a basis for a request for attorney fees.

 First, MCR 3.206(C) was revised to include a provision that within 28 days of the filing of the Answer to the Complaint for Divorce, divorcing spouses must fill out and exchange a Domestic Relations Verified Financial Information Form.  

Here is the form:  https://courts.michigan.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/cc320.pdf.

This form requires full disclosures of employment, income, assets, and debts.  It must be signed under oath in the presence of a notary.  The form also requires that documentation be attached:  recent paystubs and tax returns, and recent statements for credit card or loan accounts.  

Second, MCR 3.201(C) was revised to include a limitation on formal discovery in the form of interrogatories.  Interrogatories are a type of discovery in which formal written questions are submitted to the other spouse.  While one used to be able to send as many interrogatories as desired (within reason), divorcing couples are now limited to 35 interrogatories.

Third, MCR 3.206(D) was revised to allow for a request and award for attorney fees for spouses who lack the ability to pay for appropriate discovery, and for spouses who are on the receiving end of discovery conducted in violation of the Michigan Court Rules.

The revisions to the discovery process should help move cases along more quickly as the exchange of financial information is required early in the case.  It should also help to conserve costs within the divorce, particularly as those costs are usually paid out of the joint marital estate.  It should also help clarify the grounds for the basis of attorney fee requests.  Divorce is a stressful process, and these not so minor court rule revisions should help alleviate some of that stress.