Chapter 8: Impact of Domestic Violence on Domestic Relations Cases
Because the court must consider acts of domestic violence when considering marital property divisions, spousal support awards, and child custody determinations, this chapter touches on the impact domestic violence has on domestic relations cases. This chapter also discusses how the court’s findings of domestic violence in domestic relations cases impacts the filing of subsequent tort actions.
Because the parties to relationships involving domestic violence frequently cross jurisdictional lines in their efforts to perpetrate or escape abuse, this chapter also touches on interstate enforcement of child-custody orders and international abductions.
This chapter assumes the reader’s basic familiarity with Michigan domestic relations procedures. A discussion of divorce proceedings, child custody and parenting time proceedings, third-party custody and visitation, and child protective proceedings are all beyond the scope of this benchbook.1