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Michigan forbids the presence of open alcoholic beverage containers in the passenger area of vehicles.

UNDERLYING FACTS In the early afternoon of November 4, 2016, defendant was pulled over after an officer was dispatched for a possible drunk driver. The officer had defendant exit his vehicle and perform several field sobriety tests. Those tests...

UNDERLYING FACTS Plaintiff and defendant were married in September 2001 and divorced in August 2013. The parties entered into a divorce settlement agreement which included, in relevant part, a provision titled “Mutual Release of...

PERTINENT FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The trust settler, “decedent” executed a “pour-over” will in which the residuary of his estate was to be held, managed, and distributed according to the trust, which was created in...

PERTINENT FACTS In July 2017, plaintiff and defendant divorced by consent judgment. Under the judgment of divorce, the parties shared joint legal and physical custody of their three minor children. On September 24, 2018, plaintiff filed a motion...

Original Post: 05/14/2017 The preceding is for informational purposes only. Being stopped by the police is not usually a pleasant experience. Even with the most benign of infractions, the encounter can be adversarial. The idea of...

PERTINENT FACTS In 2010, the decedents created the Trust and dual durable powers of attorney in which each spouse nominated the other to serve as primary attorney-in-fact with respondent to serve as the first alternate. The Trust designated the...

BACKGROUND This case involves a dispute between former spouses who entered into a consent judgment of divorce (the consent judgment), which provided that defendant would pay plaintiff 50% of his military retirement benefits. Beyond that, the...

FACTUAL BACKGROUND This case arises out of a call the Jackson Police Department received from a man who had gotten into a dispute with defendant. The officer on the scene ran defendant’s name through the Law Enforcement Information Network...

Plaintiffs sued Defendant for claims for account stated and breach of contract.  Following discovery, plaintiffs moved for summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(10), arguing that they were entitled to a judgment in their favor as a matter of...

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On the evening of November 2, 2012, two men left work and were accosted by two unidentified men who came from behind an adjacent building who demanded money.  One of the men brandished a...

No one wants to be arrested, and if you are, especially for the first time, you can be very confused. Being arrested for Drunk Driving, Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) - formerly Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)...

BACKGROUND The parties met and began cohabitating in 2003.  In 2011, plaintiff and defendant began discussing marriage.  The parties had lived together for years, but each had their own separate businesses and assets.  Thus,...

BACKGROUND Plaintiff and defendant have three children together—ET, KT, and CT.  Plaintiff and defendant’s relationship ended in 2013.  Following the end of their relationship, the trial court entered a consent order for...

On the night of October 21, 2018,  a Grand Traverse County Deputy Sheriff initiated a traffic stop on the basis that defendant’s vehicle had an expired license place.  He confirmed this by means of a LEIN check and also discovered...

How much should you tell your lawyer? The fifth amendment protects U.S. citizens from incriminating themselves, but how does that work with your attorney. We get this question all the time. Many people have heard about attorney confidentiality,...

Plaintiff and defendant were married in 1990 and divorced in 2013.  The parties’ consent judgment of divorce provided, among other things, that defendant would pay plaintiff modifiable spousal support in the amount of $3,200 per...

BACKGROUND This case arises out of the divorce of the parties.  The parties mediated a settlement and the Court entered a Judgment of Divorce based on that agreement.  The provision of the judgment on appeal concerns plaintiff’s...

Plaintiff’s father and plaintiff’s stepmother (defendant) married around 1981.  In 2002, the two executed an “Agreement of Trust” prepared by their estate planning attorney.  The Agreement of Trust created a Trust...

Plaintiffs/counterdefendants (plaintiffs), and third-party defendants were neighbors from approximately 1996 until 2015.  Plaintiffs and the third-party defendants never had any disputes regarding the boundary line between their...

PROCEDURAL HISTORY  Plaintiff and defendant have twin sons, but never married.  On August 13, 2008, the Court of Common Pleas Juvenile Division in Montgomery County, Ohio established plaintiff as the legal father of the children and...

You create and execute contracts daily, most of the time, without realizing you’re doing it. These common, easily completed contracts mostly go through without a problem. For example, when you go to the barber or hair salon, you and the...

Plaintiff suffers from mental illnesses, the most significant of which are bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, which have affected her throughout her life.  Plaintiff’s grandmother conveyed the farmland to plaintiff in...

BACKGROUND Plaintiff and defendant, the parents of a minor child,  never married.  Over a year after the minor child’s birth, plaintiff filed a paternity action against defendant.  Thereafter, the parties agreed upon a final...

In 1987, plaintiff borrowed $20,000 from defendant’s predecessor in interest.  Plaintiff secured the debt with a mortgage on plaintiff’s land.  In 1994, the parties signed an extension of the mortgage agreement, and in 1999,...

Wills usually go through without a problem. Well over 90% of wills have no issue making it through probate. However, there are several grounds you may have to contest a will. As a beneficiary, or someone who would gain from a will, there are legal...

The child was born to defendant in April 2018.  The birth certificate did not identify the father, nor was an affidavit or acknowledgment of paternity executed.  After various legal troubles and intervention by the Department of Health and...

This case arises from an Adult Protective Services (APS) petition for guardianship of  the ward.  The ward lived with her son and his wife.  APS’s petition filed in June 2018 claimed that the ward had dementia, was being left...

This divorce action commenced in 2011 and the parties reached a settlement in 2013. Plaintiff submitted a proposed judgment under the seven-day rule, MCR 2.602(B)(3). Defendant filed objections. Judgment of Divorce Entered Ultimately, at an...

Plaintiff, defendant’s former employer, filed a complaint alleging, that defendant breached the parties’ Confidentiality Agreement. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that around the time defendant resigned from his position, he...

When a relationship just isn’t working, there is power in ending a bad situation. Many people rush to get a divorce, but there are other options for couples to explore. Legal separation is another avenue people use to gain distance from each...

Though never married, the parties in this case share a son. On November 10, 2014, plaintiff filed a paternity complaint, claiming defendant as the child’s father, and alleging that defendant was of sufficient ability to provide support. On...

The decedent died intestate in 2017, leaving eight children as his descendants. The probate court appointed a personal representative (PR) of the estate. Intestate If you die without a will then you died intestate. Without a validly executed...

A great U.S. freedom is the ability to drive the open roads. However, every year there are more than 20,000 car accidents in Michigan. Many of these accidents come from distracted driving and could have been avoided. Distracted driving is such a...

This case arises from two incidents of domestic violence between defendant and the victim when they were alone in the victim’s home in Michigan. In September, the victim got away from defendant and ran to the home of a neighbor, who called the...

In this case, the parties divorced by consent judgment in February 2018. Under the divorce judgment, the parties shared joint legal custody and plaintiff had primary physical custody of their minor child, who has special needs. In the divorce...

In July 2017, the parties entered into an agreement for plaintiff to purchase the assets of defendant, C Corp. The Asset Purchase Agreement stated: On the Effective Date, Plaintiff will submit to C Corp by wire transfer the sum of twenty-two...

D and C married on October 4, 2008. The couple has no children together. During the marriage, the parties lived together in a home purchased by D before the marriage that had become marital property through C’s financial investments. They each...

In this case, B and S’s relationship began to deteriorate after AB’s birth. Money was tight and B claimed that S rejected B’s requests that she return to work. S, on the other hand, accused B of belittling her role as a...