Divorce is a difficult time for most people. Veronique Liem understands that, from both her personal and professional experience. In her representation of clients, she uses her experience and legal expertise to guide clients through the process including determining with them which process is best suited. Veronique knows that a client’s satisfaction depends on different factors including their own well-being, their children’s needs and favorable financial outcomes.

Veronique helps her clients focus on family-friendly solutions while recognizing their personal goals and needs.

Veronique mostly works remotely with her clients during the COVID-19 crisis.

Family Law and Divorce Cases include:

Custody and Parenting Time
Custody decisions involve decision-making rights on children matters (legal custody) as well as parenting time schedules (physical custody) and co-parenting plans. Distances between parents’ residences, illnesses, substance abuse, and other issues can impact how those matters are resolved or decided. Different religion and child-rearing principles can complicate them. Custody decisions impact the children’s well-being. Veronique understands that those decisions must be made thoughtfully while recognizing relevant factors and laws.

Child Support
Child support in Michigan is based on statutory guidelines and formula that consider several factors such as parents’ incomes, parenting time schedules, child care and health insurance costs. In some circumstances, determining income may require extensive investigation and analysis. Enforcement and modification of child support can be an issue in some cases.

Spousal Support
Spousal support is also referred to as alimony. It is the financial support of one spouse by the other if the circumstances warrant it. Non mandatory guidelines can assist in those determinations that are made through an analysis of numerous factors such as the duration of the marriage, the age and health of the parties, their respective incomes actual and potential, assets available after divorce, number of children raised, etc. As with child support, enforcement and modification of spousal support are relevant considerations.

Unmarried Partners’ Issues
Unmarried partners may face issues for which existing laws provide unsatisfactory answers. When children were raised by both parents but are only legally the child of one, consideration of alternative processes may be desirable. This is often so as well when there are financial assets or debt to divide. The law is rapidly changing in this area and Veronique closely follows those changes.

Paternity
Paternity cases typically involve establishing a parent’s rights to be recognized as parent including rights to custody, parenting time and child support with their attendant obligations.

Property and debt division
Property and debt division issues may require determining which assets and debt are marital and which are not. Separate assets may include assets owned before marriage (premarital assets), assets identified as separate in a prenuptial agreement, inherited assets, and some gifts. There are some limited statutory grounds for a non-owning spouse to seek a share of separate assets.

Property division decisions are governed by a number of factors that include the contribution to their accumulation, when and how they were acquired, the parties’ needs and incomes.

Prenuptial Agreements
Prenuptial agreements are often sought when the parties who are getting married already have children or significant assets. They require full disclosure of existing assets and debt and should not be presented under duress or be unconscionable. Planning for them well before the marriage is desirable as they often involve negotiations that can take several weeks or longer.

• Litigation and court-directed resolutions.
• Collaborative Divorce Process.
• Mediation.

Find out more about Veronique Liem’s experience and credentials or contact us to schedule an appointment.