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Articles
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Traverse City Family lawyer Jeanne Hannah has written many articles to help her clients with questions that are routinely asked about the process of divorce, paternity, and custody cases. Ms. Hannah has assembled links to valuable information to help her clients learn more about the legal process. She has also written commentary and articles on other family law issues such as adoption and support. Links are provided below to these articles.
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Some articles are in Adobe Acrobat format.
You can obtain this program as a free download. Download it here.
ARTICLES
Internet and Email Safety
Whether you are researching the Internet
while doing pre-divorce planning,
whether you are in a relationship with
an abuser, or whether you are discussing
divorce strategy with your lawyer or a
friend, if you do not take precautions,
you may be exposing your plans and your
strategies to your spouse or abuser.
This may put you in danger of injury by
an abuser or it may interfere with
settlement of custody, parenting time,
or property issues.
One of the first things I ask a new
client is whether or not their spouse
knows his or her email account password.
Much of my contact with clients occurs
by email, since many of my clients live
a substantial distance from my office.
The communications you have with your
divorce lawyer are intended to be
confidential. This is particularly
important when you and your lawyer are
doing strategic planning.
The following are some tips for using
email and the Internet safely and
securely, while preventing your spouse
from reading your email or from seeing
what informational websites you access
online: [MORE]
Shaking a baby shatters lives.
"Shaking a baby shatters
lives." That’s the message that Cathy Sanders has been
trying to get across over the past seven years.
She’s raised money through donations to her
organization, Shaken Baby Prevention, to pay for
billboards and more recently to pay for large images
that cover the back of public buses in Northern Virginia
and in the Washington DC area.
Cathy Sanders is the mother of Ryan Sanders—a beautiful,
beautiful boy who, at the age of 8 weeks, was shaken by
his daycare provider. Ryan was shaken so violently that
he was left permanently disabled. Ryan is now 14. He
cannot talk, dress himself or brush his teeth alone. He
has the cognitive abilities of a toddler. [Continued
here]
Virtual Visitation: A Threat or a
Way to Preserve a Parent-Child Relationship Despite
Distance?
By: Jeanne M. Hannah, J.D.
Active one-on-one communication using
cameras, streaming video, etc. has come to be known as "virtual visitation." In
Michigan, the term "visitation" gave way a long time ago to the term "parenting
time." The idea is that parents parent their children and others more distant in
relationship to the children may "visit" the child. But because the termination
is pretty well fixed, I'm going to use the readily accepted, and known term
"virtual visitation."
The first time I contemplated the
concept of virtual parenting time was in 1994. At that time, I had a client who lived in
the San
Francisco Bay area whose child lived with the
custodial parent in Northern Michigan. The concept was very, very new at that
time. I'd like to
be able to report that this idea worked. Certainly, we had a court system
willing to consider it. What we did not have was a cooperative custodial parent.
The potential for setting up and keeping a computer and camera in working order
seemed daunting, if not impossible. My client decided not to fight because any and all of his parenting time
occurred with stiff opposition from the mother, cost a lot of money and anguish
for my client, and also caused the child anxiety that was transferred as a
result of the parents' conflict.
In
today's extraordinarily mobile society, however, I
believe that virtual visitation is not only necessary in
order to preserve a good parent-child relationship, but
is also something that most people have the skills to
facilitate. Certainly as fathers gain more custodial
rights and far greater parenting time opportunities than
was the case 40 years ago, virtual parenting time is not
just possible, it's a concept that can work in most
cases. I can see other good uses for it as well: letting
a parent who travels a lot in his or her job to check in
daily with his or her children, fostering a healthy
relationship between children and their grandparents or
other relatives, including siblings, who live far away.
Read More:
Separate Property Claims:
Is a War of the Roses Really Necessary?
In a bizarre twist to a hotly disputed divorce in New York State, a doctor blew up his building in Manhattan -- a building that had been appraised at over $5 million. Sounds like "War of the Roses" ! The appellate decision would force him to sell the real estate. His explosion -- which he survived -- was apparently his way of saying, "If I can't have it, then neither can you."
The doctor had claimed that the building was his separate property, inherited from his parents. However, the appellate court held that it made no difference whose name was on the title. Title alone could not deprive the wife of her community interest in property that had been acquired with marital funds, that had been improved with marital funds, and that had appreciated due to efforts made by the wife.
Surely the result was in accord with some of Michigan's recent cases involving separate property claims -- Bone v Bone, 148 Mich App 834, 838 (1986);
Hanaway v Hanaway, 208 Mich App 278 (1995); Reeves v Reeves, 226 Mich App 490, 575 NW2d 1 (1997).
Read the New York appellate court's opinion here.
Bartha v Bartha
Life Insurance Proceeds - After Divorce
"Can a Former Spouse Keep Life Insurance Proceeds She's Waived if Former Husband Forgets to Change Beneficiary on the Policy?" By Jeanne M. Hanah April 26, 2006
Resources for Divorced and Divorcing Parents
"Resources for Divorced and Divorcing Parents: Family Connex"
by Jeanne M. Hannah April 21, 2006
"Virtual Visitation: A Threat or a Wave of the Future?" by Jeanne M. Hannah April 21, 2006
"UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW:
Collected Articles on Important Family Law Issues" by Jeanne M. Hannah
MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW LINKS. Compiled by Jeanne M. Hannah. Last Revised August 9, 2005.
Jeanne Hannah has indexed websites with important handbooks and documents to help parents understand their rights and obligations with respect to custody, parenting time, child support, adoption, neglect, abuse, and paternity issues. Links to websites and resources to assist clients with domestic abuse issues are also included.
Click Here:
Michigan Family Law Links
"Additional Resources for Divorcing Parents and Single Parents." Last Revised November 3, 2005
Cohabitation
"Cohabitation and Real Property Ownership" by Jeanne M. Hannah, April1, 2006. [Word]
Learn how to avoid costly mistakes in property ownership that could deprive you of your valuable property rights if your cohabitation relationship fails.
Children's Issues
"Can a Child Ever Choose Which Parent She Wants to Live With?" by Jeanne M. Hannah, March 23, 2006.
"Child Abuse & Neglect: What Is It? How Can You Report It? What Procedures are Used to Protect Children?" by Jeanne M. Hannah
"Should Family Courts Restrict Exposure of Children to Second-hand Smoke?" by Jeanne M. Hannah.
Evaluating Your Child Custody or
Parenting Time Case. This document helps you
to help your lawyer evaluate your child custody or
parenting time case.
Paternity - Parentage Issues
Can a putative father protect his parental rights by filing a Notice of Intent?
Another Look at Paternity Issues: This time Boyfriend has Standing to Sue
Military
Families
MILITARY FAMILIES: Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts. It is recommended that military personnel who are single parents review and execute a letter of intent in order to define the authority of guardians for their minor children during deployments. Access to and use of this form does not create an attorney / client relationship between the user and Jeanne M. Hannah. Every case has its own specific facts and the State laws governing each family may differ from state to state. That said, this Agreement intends to clarify the servicemember's intention that a transfer of custody during a deployment is intended to be temporary and that custody of the child(ren) is intended to be transferred back to the servicemember upon return from the deployment.
Click Here:
Sample Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts [Word]
Sample Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts [PDF}
Other articles:
Jeanne Hannah has written many short articles discussing current issues in Michigan family law published on her Blog: Updates in Michigan Family Law
"HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE WITNESS." By Jeanne M. Hannah. Last Revised August 29, 2004.
You may be scheduled to testify at a deposition, a hearing or a trial. This article will help you understand what the process is and how you can be most effective.
Click Here:
How to be an Effective Witness
"FACING END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS AND MAKING CHOICES:
A Guide for Caregivers."
By: Jeanne M. Hannah. Last revised January 2, 2005.
This article explains the advantages of having a legal medical advance directive (sometimes called a "living will"). The article answers commonly asked questions about advance directives.
Documents to Bring to Your First
Consultation. A list of important documents /
records your lawyer will need.
|
Some articles are in Adobe Acrobat format.
You can obtain this program as a free download. Download it here.
Shaking a baby shatters lives.
"Shaking a baby shatters
lives." That’s the message that Cathy Sanders has been
trying to get across over the past seven years.
She’s raised money through donations to her
organization, Shaken Baby Prevention, to pay for
billboards and more recently to pay for large images
that cover the back of public buses in Northern Virginia
and in the Washington DC area.
Cathy Sanders is the mother of Ryan Sanders—a beautiful,
beautiful boy who, at the age of 8 weeks, was shaken by
his daycare provider. Ryan was shaken so violently that
he was left permanently disabled. Ryan is now 14. He
cannot talk, dress himself or brush his teeth alone. He
has the cognitive abilities of a toddler. [Continued
here]
Virtual Visitation: A Threat or a
Way to Preserve a Parent-Child Relationship Despite
Distance?
By: Jeanne M. Hannah, J.D.
Active one-on-one communication using
cameras, streaming video, etc. has come to be known as "virtual visitation." In
Michigan, the term "visitation" gave way a long time ago to the term "parenting
time." The idea is that parents parent their children and others more distant in
relationship to the children may "visit" the child. But because the termination
is pretty well fixed, I'm going to use the readily accepted, and known term
"virtual visitation."
The first time I contemplated the
concept of virtual parenting time was in 1994. At that time, I had a client who lived in
the San
Francisco Bay area whose child lived with the
custodial parent in Northern Michigan. The concept was very, very new at that
time. I'd like to
be able to report that this idea worked. Certainly, we had a court system
willing to consider it. What we did not have was a cooperative custodial parent.
The potential for setting up and keeping a computer and camera in working order
seemed daunting, if not impossible. My client decided not to fight because any and all of his parenting time
occurred with stiff opposition from the mother, cost a lot of money and anguish
for my client, and also caused the child anxiety that was transferred as a
result of the parents' conflict.
In
today's extraordinarily mobile society, however, I
believe that virtual visitation is not only necessary in
order to preserve a good parent-child relationship, but
is also something that most people have the skills to
facilitate. Certainly as fathers gain more custodial
rights and far greater parenting time opportunities than
was the case 40 years ago, virtual parenting time is not
just possible, it's a concept that can work in most
cases. I can see other good uses for it as well: letting
a parent who travels a lot in his or her job to check in
daily with his or her children, fostering a healthy
relationship between children and their grandparents or
other relatives, including siblings, who live far away.
Read More:
Separate Property Claims:
Is a War of the Roses Really Necessary?
In a bizarre twist to a hotly disputed divorce in New York State, a doctor blew up his building in Manhattan -- a building that had been appraised at over $5 million. Sounds like "War of the Roses" ! The appellate decision would force him to sell the real estate. His explosion -- which he survived -- was apparently his way of saying, "If I can't have it, then neither can you."
The doctor had claimed that the building was his separate property, inherited from his parents. However, the appellate court held that it made no difference whose name was on the title. Title alone could not deprive the wife of her community interest in property that had been acquired with marital funds, that had been improved with marital funds, and that had appreciated due to efforts made by the wife.
Surely the result was in accord with some of Michigan's recent cases involving separate property claims -- Bone v Bone, 148 Mich App 834, 838 (1986);
Hanaway v Hanaway, 208 Mich App 278 (1995); Reeves v Reeves, 226 Mich App 490, 575 NW2d 1 (1997).
Read the New York appellate court's opinion here.
Bartha v Bartha
Life Insurance Proceeds - After Divorce
"Can a Former Spouse Keep Life Insurance Proceeds She's Waived if Former Husband Forgets to Change Beneficiary on the Policy?" By Jeanne M. Hanah April 26, 2006
Resources for Divorced and Divorcing Parents
"Resources for Divorced and Divorcing Parents: Family Connex"
by Jeanne M. Hannah April 21, 2006
"Virtual Visitation: A Threat or a Wave of the Future?" by Jeanne M. Hannah April 21, 2006
"UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW:
Collected Articles on Important Family Law Issues" by Jeanne M. Hannah
MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW LINKS. Compiled by Jeanne M. Hannah. Last Revised August 9, 2005.
Jeanne Hannah has indexed websites with important handbooks and documents to help parents understand their rights and obligations with respect to custody, parenting time, child support, adoption, neglect, abuse, and paternity issues. Links to websites and resources to assist clients with domestic abuse issues are also included.
Click Here:
Michigan Family Law Links
"Additional Resources for Divorcing Parents and Single Parents." Last Revised November 3, 2005
Cohabitation
"Cohabitation and Real Property Ownership" by Jeanne M. Hannah, April1, 2006. [Word]
Learn how to avoid costly mistakes in property ownership that could deprive you of your valuable property rights if your cohabitation relationship fails.
Children's Issues
"Can a Child Ever Choose Which Parent She Wants to Live With?" by Jeanne M. Hannah, March 23, 2006.
"Child Abuse & Neglect: What Is It? How Can You Report It? What Procedures are Used to Protect Children?" by Jeanne M. Hannah
"Should Family Courts Restrict Exposure of Children to Second-hand Smoke?" by Jeanne M. Hannah.
Evaluating Your Child Custody or
Parenting Time Case. This document helps you
to help your lawyer evaluate your child custody or
parenting time case.
Paternity - Parentage Issues
Can a putative father protect his parental rights by filing a Notice of Intent?
Another Look at Paternity Issues: This time Boyfriend has Standing to Sue
Military
Families
MILITARY FAMILIES: Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts. It is recommended that military personnel who are single parents review and execute a letter of intent in order to define the authority of guardians for their minor children during deployments. Access to and use of this form does not create an attorney / client relationship between the user and Jeanne M. Hannah. Every case has its own specific facts and the State laws governing each family may differ from state to state. That said, this Agreement intends to clarify the servicemember's intention that a transfer of custody during a deployment is intended to be temporary and that custody of the child(ren) is intended to be transferred back to the servicemember upon return from the deployment.
Click Here:
Sample Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts [Word]
Sample Letter of Intent / Instruction for Guardians and Escorts [PDF}
Other articles:
Jeanne Hannah has written many short articles discussing current issues in Michigan family law published on her Blog: Updates in Michigan Family Law
"HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE WITNESS." By Jeanne M. Hannah. Last Revised August 29, 2004.
You may be scheduled to testify at a deposition, a hearing or a trial. This article will help you understand what the process is and how you can be most effective.
Click Here:
How to be an Effective Witness
"FACING END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS AND MAKING CHOICES:
A Guide for Caregivers."
By: Jeanne M. Hannah. Last revised January 2, 2005.
This article explains the advantages of having a legal medical advance directive (sometimes called a "living will"). The article answers commonly asked questions about advance directives.
Documents to Bring to Your First
Consultation. A list of important documents /
records your lawyer will need.
Disclaimer
The information presented on this website is not intended to serve as a substitute for consultation with an attorney, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Specific legal issues, concerns and conditions always require the advice of appropriate legal professional.
Email:
jeanne.m.hannah [at] charter.net
Free initial
consultation (1/2 hour)
Credit cards accepted:
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Practice Areas:
Divorce,
Child custody,
Child Support,
Spousal Support,
Temporary Orders,
Post-judgment modification,
Property
Settlements,
Prenuptial / Postnuptial Agreements |
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