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A person may file a complaint for divorce in any county in the state without meeting the 10-day requirement above if all of the following apply and are set forth in the complaint:

• The defendant was born in, or is a citizen of, a country other than the United States of America.
• The parties to the divorce action have a minor child or children.
• There is information that would allow the court to reasonably conclude that the minor child or children are at risk of being taken out of the United States of America and retained in another country by the defendant.

The Judicial Circuit Court in the county where the claimant or defendant resides. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.6]

The court shall enter a judgment dissolving the bonds of matrimony if evidence is presented in open court that there has been a breakdown in the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved.

[Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.6]

An action for separate maintenance may be filed in the circuit court in the same manner and on the same grounds as an action for divorce. In the complaint the plaintiff shall make no other explanation of the grounds for separate maintenance than by use of the statutory language. If evidence is presented in open court that there has been a breakdown in the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved, the court shall enter: (a) A judgment of separate maintenance if a counterclaim for divorce has not been filed. (b) A judgment dissolving the bonds of matrimony if a counterclaim for divorce has been filed. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.7]

MEDIATION OR COUNSELING REQUIREMENTS:

The office shall provide, either directly or by contract, domestic relations mediation to assist the parties in settling voluntarily a dispute concerning child custody or parenting time that arises in a friend of the court case. Parties shall not be required to meet with a domestic relations mediator. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.513]

PROPERTY DISTRIBUTION:

Michigan is an equitable distribution state. Upon the annulment of a marriage, a divorce from the bonds of matrimony or a judgment of separate maintenance, the court may make a further judgment for restoring to either party the whole, or such parts as it shall deem just and reasonable, of the real and personal estate that shall have come to either party by reason of the marriage (if it appears from the evidence in the case that the party contributed to the acquisition, improvement, or accumulation of the property), or for awarding to either party the value thereof, to be paid by either party in money. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.19]

ALIMONY/MAINTENANCE/SPOUSAL SUPPORT:

In every action brought, either for a divorce or for a separation, the court may require either party to pay alimony for the suitable maintenance of the adverse party, to pay such sums as shall be deemed proper and necessary to conserve any real or personal property owned by the parties or either of them, and to pay any sums necessary to enable the adverse party to carry on or defend the action, during its pendency. It may award costs against either party and award execution for the same, or it may direct such costs to be paid out of any property sequestered, or in the power of the court, or in the hands of a receiver.

An award of alimony may be terminated by the court as of the date the party receiving alimony remarries unless a contrary agreement is specifically stated in the judgment of divorce. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.13]

SPOUSE S NAME:

The circuit courts of this state, whenever a decree of divorce is granted, may, at the instance of the woman, whether complainant or defendant, decree to restore to her her birth name, or the surname she legally bore prior to her marriage to the husband in the divorce action, or allow her to adopt another surname if the change is not sought with any fraudulent or evil intent. [Based on Michigan Revised Statutes - Section: 552.391]

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