Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Michigan

Re: Possible Nepatisum

Nepotism...The first thing is to get your facts together. Mere simularities in first/last names (er, think of "John Smith") does not mean that the judge is related. I hope you have a lawyer representing you, because when a person thinks a judge has it in for him/her, s/he is usually right. So get a lawyer.

The down side of representing yourself is that you tend to speak your mind, which is not good in a courtroom! :o)) You're there to get a job done, and it's hard to be impartial, regal and all that, when you're the one who seems to always get kicked in the teeth.

Know that judges get to decide for themselves: "Gee, do I think I would be unfair to that SOB who's making my sister's only son so miserable that he ruined the barbeques that we had all last summer by getting drunk and screaming at our kids???...."

Once the mirror tells him/her that s/he is indeed the fairest judge in the land, you'll have to appeal to the circuit court head judge. And, then, if S/HE decides her/his colleague can OF COURSE maintain total impartiality, then you'll have to take it further.

If you find a close relationship (perhaps, that same family has owned 1/2 the real estate in the county in which you live and all the patriarch's grandkids are lawyers in that same town and county records show that your judge traces both sides of his family to that patriarch...:o))..., be prepared to appeal with STRONG facts showing why you are entitled to a new judge. Of course, a new judge could be the golf partner of your old judge's wife (extremely unlikely to support a motion for recusal), so consider strategy B.

...which is to recognize that you shouldn't STILL be fighting over child support 10 years after your divorce. Why not move back in together, if that's the case!

I know it's much harder,--but you really should try. Kids'll be 30 and you two will still be at each other! Bonus: you don't have your life dictated by a judge. Make your kids the most important thing, not money for that vacation next summer. If you're always on THEIR side, then eventually you will be ok.

How do you do this? You and your ex-spouse go before a mediator, or (hee hee) the FOC, and work out a flexible child support agreement that departs from the guidelines in that it sets an obligation that you can live with (even if you do't like it), and prevents the other side from hassling you if you do what you promise.

It may be based upon a fiction (i.e. more than you actually earn), but it will give you an amount that you CAN commit to. Unless you're wealthy, the kids need that money.

Then, if you're the payer: pay it with utmost good faith, regardless of what your ex-spouse does to provoke you. Then. you won't have to even SEE that judge.