Legal Question in Family Law in Michigan

Re: child support adjustment

Strongly suggest that you make an agreement with her attorney that the FOC may have, but not disclose, the tax return to determine your child support obligation.

On the other hand, if there is an abiding court order that compels it, then yes, you have to.

__Even so__, what you can do is agree that everyone brings all of their paperwork to a hearing with the FOC, who will sit down right then and there and calculate your respective support obligations. Then, you can negotiate a settlement.

Much less insulting than forking over private data and the lawyer shouldn't care one way or the other.

You can also estimate support yourself, so that you're not surprised. Just understand that no matter how much you are compelled to pay, it's never going to be enough, and for the sake of the children, creative use of whatever money is available in the common pot is a good thing.

For example, if everyone is flush, you can agree in writing that the child support be paid directly into an education IRA for the kids.

The court/FOC is NOT likely to stand in the way of any agreement you parents make that works in the best interests of your kids.

Third option is to contact a dispute resolution center and see whether they can refer you to a mediator experienced in this sort of thing.

You can at least try to work things out. Lawyers are welcome to attend, so long as they don't try to run the process and prevent constructive solutions. Michigan's ADR programs are really growing, and the dispute resolution centers are all in contact with people who regularly mediate this sort of thing.

Further, the larger courts publish mediator listings and you can start your research there.