When there are children, a family consists of the parents or spouses and the children. Your front door just opened, and your ex walked out. You’re thinking, does my ex have rights if they walked out on our family? It might just be about family. It’s also possible that your ex is simply leaving you specifically. Many factors can cause someone to leave. You believe your ex is abandoning the family by leaving.
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It’s possible that your spouse is just avoiding you in order to keep the peace in the household. It’s possible your ex is not giving up parental rights. Of course, it’s possible your ex is simply giving up on one or more of the children rather than genuinely leaving the family. What will be the rights of an ex-spouse? The court will consider the family’s overall situation and context. It won’t be predicated on a single instance of a spouse leaving the home.
In most cases, leaving entails ending all involvement in the relationship. The most particular effects, however, are the financial element, the loss of connection, and jeopardizing of other marital concerns.
This can encompass the breakup of a marriage’s business as well as the loss of companionship with the spouse or any children. While the other takes care of the home, one spouse may work. While the husband or wife is in school or earning less money, one person may work. Depending on when they leave home, different things have different effects on the relationship.
Emotional and legal issues are other factors. Usually, the divorce is not caused by the spouse’s departure. But in this situation, there is no dialogue or reaction at all. Emotional upheavals such as fury and despair are experienced by the person who was left behind. Legal action could include presenting the case to the judge and asking for custody or spousal support. A mortgage or business dealings when the couple runs a private or public firm might also enable the lone survivor to seek temporary or emergency financial support as a result of the abandonment.
Does Walking Out on Family a Basis for Divorce?
Because Michigan is a no-fault divorce state, there is no requirement that a person gives a reason for wanting a divorce. It does not imply however, fault cannot be taken into account in the distribution of assets or the payment of alimony. Before 1972, when Michigan passed a no-fault divorce law, a person seeking a divorce had to give a reason for doing so, such as adultery, physical abuse, or abandonment.
The judge could refuse the person’s request for a divorce if they failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their case. Some judges would flat-out refuse to grant a divorce, especially if the party making the motion was a woman. This led to significant social inequity as well as other issues.
Before 1972, if someone left the marital residence for any reason, the court could conclude the person had abandoned the marriage. The court might then issue a divorce decree based on the abandonment. Moreover, it can negate the deserting partner’s claim to a property division, parental rights, and alimony, depending on the circumstances.
After Michigan passed its no-fault law, abandonment started to matter far less. Today, the legal concept of abandonment is seldom ever applied in divorce proceedings.
Is Walking Out on Family Wrong?
Even though it’s frequently awkward and uncomfortable, both parties have the right to live in the marital home until the divorce is formalized. It is typical, though, for parties to eventually find it intolerable to remain in a shared residence. A spouse may occasionally need to leave the house due to major safety concerns such as physical abuse, drug misuse, etc.
It’s not always wrong to abandon your spouse without notice. Consider a spouse who leaves their partner because of unworkable challenges posed by the other spouse, domestic abuse, or both. However, when abandoning your spouse is the reason for the divorce, that person may be regarded “at fault” for the dissolution of the marriage, and being at fault can have legal repercussions in a Michigan divorce case.
When a marriage breaks down, the man frequently leaves first. The mother is commonly but not always, the one who looks after the children the most. However, the father cannot be charged with “abandoning” his children as long as he continues to see them frequently and provides for them. Simply leaving the house is not abandonment in and of itself.
Staying isn’t always the best course of action, especially when you think about the circumstances that frequently result in divorce. Avoiding a domestic argument is a good reason to leave a relationship if the couple cannot seem to stop fighting. It’s more likely to have bad long-term effects if you have a screaming match in front of your children every day while attempting to live in the same place and endure the divorce procedure for several months.
Will My Ex Still Have Rights After the Walk Out?
In Michigan, anyone who chooses to leave the marital home before or during the divorce procedure will still be entitled to their share of the property. Once you move out, it might be challenging to return to reside there, but only if your spouse asked for and was granted a court order barring you from doing so. If not, you own the property as well and are entitled to your share of the marital assets.
It may be very difficult to get legal custody of a child if a parent has not seen the child or been actively involved in the child’s life, but the parent should still be allowed to request parenting time. This depends on how long the parent has been gone. It may be necessary, to begin with, for smaller amounts of parenting time or visitation, but as the bond between the parent and child develops, that can be increased.
A parent’s failure to pay child support normally has no impact on the other parent’s claim to custody or parenting time; likewise, a parent’s inability to file for child support has no impact on the other parent’s capacity to seek child support at any point after the parties divorce.
If you have children, it’s preferable to come to temporary custody, parenting time, and support arrangement before you leave so you and your spouse can make sure the children continue to have a good relationship with both of you. Contact an attorney right away if you are unable to come to an agreement over your children before you move. In order to protect yourself with regard to custody and parenting time difficulties after the divorce, you should make sure that you are maintaining some form of contact with your children.
Instances where a parent has abandoned their children, such as by abandoning them in a dumpster or the woods, are still considered to be criminal offenses. When people inquire about divorce, this is not often what they have in mind.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.