DIY Divorce Pitfalls: What To Avoid (Part 1)

Do-it-yourself is everywhere. From instructions on how to build your own greenhouse using old windows to recipes for making your own laundry stain remover and lip balm, the internet is overflowing with things you can (maybe, possibly)  do yourself. That’s wonderful, because it teaches self-reliance, inspires creativity, and saves money. But there are certain things that are usually not best when done yourself. On the list of things to avoid doing yourself are surgery, unless you have many years of training, flying an airplane without extensive training, building a house unless you have lots of building experience, and practicing law in a divorce case.

Although we appreciate how much our clients know when they come to us, having spent hours online educating themselves about the divorce process, the fact remains that not everything you read is true, and not every piece of information is helpful, or correct. For this reason, we take some time to help our readers understand a little more about the Michigan D-I-Y divorce process. In particular, some of the pitfalls they should work to avoid if they are planning to go the D-I-Y route in any county in Michigan.

1. Know and Understand Michigan Law!

The online community is a borderless place. A reader in Michigan can access family law blogs written in their own home state, just as easily as they can access family law blogs written in other states like California or Utah, and even in other countries like England and Northern Ireland. The catch is, most blogs and websites that deals with divorce law do not have obvious indicators showing the reader where they are written. (This is one of the reasons we use the domain names oaklandcountyfamilylaw.com and midmichigandivorce.com. Because while we love our readers from all over the world, we want to be sure that when you are looking for information about divorce in your area, there is no doubt as to whether or not our site is the right one for you!)

So while the content you have spent the last hour browsing the internet may be informative and perfectly correct, it won’t do you any good because you don’t live in Idaho. Or Arizona. Or Scotland. You live in Michigan, and Michigan divorce law is different from divorce law in every other part of the world. Sometimes the differences are small and subtle, sometimes they are vast. But either way, our advice would be to ensure that when you are researching divorce and all that it entails, be sure to check every single source to be certain that you are getting the right information about the law in Michigan. A better source for legal reading is a law library which will identify our state law specifically.

2. What Are Your Rights & Entitlements Under The Law?

Not knowing your rights and entitlements under our state law means that any decision you make with regard to spousal support, custody, or child support, will not be an informed decision. And in a divorce, where the results of your choices can, and often do, impact the rest of your life, it is critical to know what you are legally entitled to have and do in a divorce.

For example, understanding that when it comes to the division of assets, Michigan is an “equitable distribution” state as opposed to a “community property” state, can have a substantial impact on how you choose to divide your assets and debts during a divorce. Other issues include which assets are marital and which are separate, understanding how your retirement and pension may be affected, or whether the divorce will have any impact on your inheritance. These are all complex questions that only an experienced family law attorney can answer.

Join us next time, as we discuss in detail more of the possible pitfalls one could encounter during a D-I-Y divorce, and how to avoid them. Because knowledge is power, and the more informed you are, the better your divorce-related decisions are likely to be.