We provide unlimited support for all of our customers through our Michigan Divorce Online Help Center. We take great pride in being able to respond to our customers in a "human" to "human" approach (as you can see, we do not hide our toll free number 1-800-680-9052). We understand the need a customer may have to talk to a person rather than the typical automated voice or e-mail support system. Please keep in mind that we are not lawyers and we do not give out legal advice. If you need legal advice regarding your uncontested divorce in Michigan, we recommend that you contact a lawyer in your area.

In almost all cases, you file for a divorce in the state where you reside. This means that if you are a resident of Michigan, you file in Michigan and are governed by Michigan's divorce laws even if you were married, for example, in California.

You must meet Michigan's residency requirement for a Michigan court to have jurisdiction over your divorce.

Michigan 3StepDivorce™ works as long as both you and your spouse agree about everything, and both of you are willing to sign the divorce paperwork.

You do not have to sign the papers together, at the same time and place, but the Michigan 3StepDivorce™ requires both spouses to sign.

It sure does. The Michigan 3StepDivorce™ allows you to address all issues regarding children, including but not limited to, physical and legal custody, visitation and support, care, health insurance and tax deductions.

Thousands of people divorce in Michigan every year without hiring a lawyer.

When spouses cannot agree about the terms and conditions of their divorce, they sometimes end up in court where a judge makes decisions for them. This is called a contested divorce, and hiring a lawyer is a good idea in this case.

When a Michigan divorce is uncontested and both parties are willing to sign, (when you and you spouse agree about everything) filing your own divorce is a common choice in order to cut down legal expenses. Read about the advantages of filing your own uncontested divorce in Michigan.

The residency requirements for a divorce in Michigan are as follows:

One of the spouses, immediately prior to the filing, must be a resident of Michigan for 180 days and a resident of the county of filing for 10 days prior to the commencement of the action. If, however, the party is foreign born or a citizen of a foreign country and there are minor children at risk of removal from the United States, the 10-day county residence requirement may be waived.

Yes. The Michigan divorce papers requires a signed authentication that you have been a resident of Michigan for at least the past 180 days.

This is a state law.

Signing false statements is perjury.

If the court requires proof for some reason, typically a Michigan driver's license or state identification is sufficient. An affidavit of a corroborating witness testifying about your residency also works.

Your spouse does not need to live in Michigan to use 3StepDivorce™. After you have printed all the divorce paperwork, you simply mail the documents to your spouse and he or she signs them. After your spouse returns them, you file in your local county court.

Very often divorcing spouses live in different states.

The grounds for divorce in Michigan are as follows:

No Fault is the only ground for divorce. No fault means a breakdown in the marriage to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood the marriage can be preserved.

Once the divorce paperwork has been filed in court, it usually takes 30 to 90 days for a divorce to be final. The start to finish time of the divorce may vary depending on the caseload of the court and the availability of judges to sign the final Decree of Divorce.

3StepDivorce™ saves time because all lengthy delivery times are eliminated when you print your documents from your computer. You control revisions and reprintings as necessary.

In Michigan, a divorce hearing is typically required, especially if you and your spouse have children. If there are children involved, a short hearing, generally about 15 minutes, gives the court an opportunity to make certain that you understand the parameters of custody, visitation and support that are ordered as part of your divorce.

If there are no children, the hearing process in very streamlined. Since you and your spouse are in agreement, there is nothing for the court to decide. Learn more about divorce hearings in Michigan

There is no mandatory waiting period in Michigan.

Yes. 3StepDivorce™ includes a protocol for the wife to take back her former or birth name as part of the filing. It is easier to effect a name change during the divorce rather than after the divorce is finalized. Read more about a name change during a divorce in Michigan

Separate and marital property and debt is identified and addressed in your 3StepDivorce™ account. A series of questions itemizes property and debt, dividing and allocating both according to what you and your spouse have agreed to. The answers become part of the divorce documents, so it is clear to you, your spouse and the court how assets and liabilities have been divided.

Yes. You answer a few questions dealing with individual retirement accounts. You have the option of waiving rights to each other's account(s), or dividing any marital portion of an account by a specific percentage or a dollar amount.

Once again, a few questions inside your account deal with the disposition of the marital home. All possible scenarios are covered -- sale, planned sale, transfer from one spouse to the other, and co-ownership.

A few questions in your account deal with temporary or permanent spousal support. Rights to spousal support may be waived, or a couple can agree to a specific amount for a set period of time. These questions define and limit the parameters of the desired spousal support, which often terminates upon remarriage or cohabitation.

Michigan requires that a support order be put in place for all minor children.

3StepDivorce™ provides the Michigan Child Support Guideline Worksheet, so you can easily calculate the state's recommendation for monthly support, but you have the option of taking these recommendations under advisement. The courts realize that you and your spouse know your situation better than they do, so they may approve any reasonable support amount, even if it is different from the one on the state worksheet.

We provide Michigan Child Support Worksheets inside your account. These worksheets make it very easy to calculate a monthly support amount. The support calculation is based on a number of variables, but the primary one is income.

Once you have calculated the amount, you and your spouse decide if you want to deviate from it and the reasons for doing so.

Yes. Once you and your spouse agree to a monthly child support amount, a judge reviews your decision. He or she will accept it if it seems reasonable. However, if it seems too high or too low, the judge will want an explanation why the two of you came to amount so much at variance from the state guidelines. Your explanation and reasons for it determine whether or not the judge accepts your proposed child support amount.

Michigan permits deviation from its child support guidelines when 1) the child has a) special needs, b) extraordinary education expenses, c) an income below the threshold to qualify for public assistance, and at least one parent has sufficient income to pay additional support to raise the child's income above the public assistance threshold; 2) one or both parents are minors; 3) a reduction of income available to support a child has happened because of extraordinary levels of joint debt; 4) the court awards property in lieu of support for the benefit of the child; 5) one or both parents a) are incarcerated, b) have incurred, or are likely to incur, extraordinary medical expenses either for themselves or a dependent, c) earn incomes of a magnitude not fully taken in consideration by the child support formula, d) have varying amounts of irregular bonus income; 6) someone other then the parent can supply reasonable health care coverage.

Yes. Child support can be modified based on a change in circumstances. In Michigan, a change in circumstances means "a significant change in circumstances," generally, changes "not considered when the original judgment was entered" that are "permanent and substantial" and/or "affect one's current standard of living."

Yes. Child custody arrangements can be modified when, for example, they break down because of the conduct of one of the former spouses.

Yes. The terms and conditions of both sole and joint/shared custody are defined by you and your spouse.

Yes. You can either use a standard schedule that we provide in your account, or you can use our option to customize your own.

Yes. Some of the divorce papers need to be notarized. The step-by-step filing instructions explain who signs what and whether a particular document needs to be notarized. The documents requiring notarization contain notary clauses below individual signature lines.

No. If desired, each of you may sign and/or notarize a document at a different time and/or place.

As mentioned, very frequently spouses sign and notarize the documents at different times and places because they live apart in different states. This happens often, for example, when one of them has moved or is in the military.

In Michigan, the divorce papers are filed in the __________ Judicial Circuit, ____________ County, which is the local county courthouse, where the Domestic Relations or Family Law department accepts the divorce filing. The divorce documents are submitted to the Clerk of the Courts. You pay a filing fee, and the clerk assigns the case a case number.

In Michigan, the fees vary by county. If you want to know the exact amount, you can call the courthouse and ask.

Filing fees underwrite the cost of the court system, but in the case of indigent petitioners these fees may be waived.

Normally, an indigent petitioner completes a very short form at the time of filing. This form asks the court to waive the fees because of financial hardship.

Yes. If you have signed up but not filed any divorce papers, then nothing must be done. If you have initiated the action by filing the petition for divorce, your case can be dismissed by petitioning the court to do so. Normally, this can only be done by the filing spouse and must be done in writing.

Often the clerk of the court can help a person remove a case from the court docket.

The Michigan 3StepDivorce™ includes the following documents:

- Michigan Filing Instructions
- Summons
- Petition for Divorce
- Verified Statement (example only)
- Marital Settlement Agreement
- Schedule for Visitation/Parenting Time of Minor Children
- Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit
- Michigan Child Support Formula Manual
- Child Support Recommendation Worksheet A
- Child Support Recommendation Worksheet B
- Child Support Recommendation Worksheet C
- Child Support Recommendation Worksheet D
- Child Support Recommendation Worksheet E
- Agreement Suspending Immediate Income Withholding
- Order Suspending Immediate Income Withholding
- Answer and Waiver
- Notice of Hearing (optional)
- Decree of Divorce
- Record of Divorce or Annulment (example only)

Read more about the Michigan Divorce Papers

Copyright Notice: The above questions and answers regarding Michigan divorce is original material which is owned an copyrighted by 3 Step Solutions, LLC. This material has been adapted from applicable state laws and unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. Violation of this notice will result in immediate legal action.