There appears to be an agreement in Washington on the Debt Ceiling. It was a long ugly and embarrasing fight that might have been handled differently and without taking the country to the economic edge if the parties had paid more serious attention to the Tea Party representatives when they came into Congress in January. They told their own leaders that they would not approve a debt ceiling increase and they meant it. So the country had to wait until… More

There is an important article in the July 9, 2011 issue of the Wall Street Journal: “The Divorce Generation”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576430341393583056.html?KEYWORDS=the+divorce+generation 

  The article reveals the problems of the  adult children of divorced parents and their fear that they will follow in same miserable footsteps. Divorce is far more devastating on these people than we thought. They lived through the trauma of fights over custody, parenting time,  and unpaid child support. Being shuttled back and forth every few days or worse, rarely seeing the… More

Give your kids a happy Father’s Day…

I have a new article in the June 2011 issue of Womens LifeStyle Magazine of Greater Kalamazoo, http://www.womenslifestylekazoo.com on the dangers of badmouthing your ex to the kids.  See page 19.

Too often one parent will act out his or her anger against the other parent by telling the kids repeatedly what an evil person their ex is.  Eventually the children begin to think it’s actually their idea that the parent is bad.… More

On a recent Sunday, My wife and I were seated near the back of our local church. Since it was Spring break, the church wasn’t crowded. Across the aisle were two young couples, each with one child, a boy and a girl, and both about two years old.

As the service wore on, the little girl started roaming near the floor to ceiling window at the side of the church, examining the glass, the floor, and the backs of the… More

Up to now, we’ve been talking about what you should be asking a prospective divorce lawyer in Kalamazoo. In a later blog, I’ll summarize all the questions to ask her as well as the questions you should ask yourself to determine what you really need.

Here we’re going to examine what’s going on in the attorney’s mind when he or she looks across the desk at a prospective client. You might find the comments blunt and even  ”off-putting” but the… More

The March 2011 issue of the Michigan Family Law Journal features an article by Carole Chiamp, a Detroit mediator and attorney, that compares the outcomes of 400 divorce cases; half of which were mediatied and the other half litigated.

There are several useful conclusions for you to take from the article, especially if you’re considering mediation but believe that taking a hard position in a contested court fight will better  protect your rights and get you more.

First, there was… More

At the end of my last blog (Part 1), on hiring a Kalamazoo divorce lawyer, I said that after we talk and decide that mediation might not be for you that I would then recommend the right kind of lawyer.

Here I want to list a couple of questions you might want to ask that prospective divorce attorney.

1. Do you specialize in family law and divorce? If not how much of your practice is devoted to divorce work and how long have… More

On its face, calculating child support might seem to be a simple matter. Go to the Michigan Child Support Formula online, plug  in the actual incomes of each party, calculate the number of overnights, adjust for union dues, child care, health insurance, etc., and up comes the number. True enough, but you can create some long term problems if you get too greedy in exaggerating your spouse’s  income, understating your own, and fighting too hard to limit the number of parenting time… More

If you’re reading this blog, then you’re probably committed to finding the Kalamazoo divorce lawyer who fits your needs. So let’s start at the very beginning.

What exactly are your needs? Have you been blindsided by a spouse who has already filed for divorce and hired the toughest lawyer in town? Has he or she emptied the bank accounts and run up unpayable bills? Or, have the two of you just drifted apart and you’re working together to reach an… More

In the President’s  speech to the nation from Tucson on January 12th, he singled out for our attention the innocent child Christina Taylor Green who was gunned down by the madman Jared Loughner. He said that she was just awakening to the political life in a democracy and that she had high expectations and dreams for that life. The sentence that resonated for the listener was the President’s pledge that he and we must live up to Christina’s expectations.

I… More