We often advise our clients that, once the courts are involved in your life, everything you do is under a microscope.  We tell clients that they should consider every decision through the lens of “How would this look if this was brought up in court in front of the Judge?” We recently had a case that really drove home how important that advice is.

Our client and his wife had divorced earlier this year.  He had found out that his ex-wife now had a new boyfriend.  And one important note here: courts do not, as a general rule, have any issue with people moving on after they are divorced.  However, it matters quite a bit who the person is moving on to.  In this case, our client did some research and found out that his ex’s new boyfriend was a registered sex offender.  Understandably, our client had a problem with his children being around this person, which is why he called us.

We advised our client that the Michigan Court of Appeals has a problem with such contact, as well.  Indeed, in every case we could find, the Court of Appeals had ruled that it is improper for a parent to knowingly bring the children into contact with a registered sex offender.  In fact, the Courts had went so far as to either take away custody from the guilty parent or terminate their parental rights altogether.

The mother in this case had found a way to convince herself that it was OK to have the children around this man, since she believed he had “changed.”  But, as we said, when the courts are involved, what matters is what the court would think.  In this case, we were able to convince the mother that she was on the wrong side of the law on this issue, and she agreed to an order prohibiting any further contact with her new boyfriend.

Our client was correct to be concerned about this situation, and it turned out to be the right call to get in touch with us to find out if he had legal grounds to take action.  Our Michigan family law attorneys have years of experience handling custody and parenting time issues like this one and would be happy to talk to you.  Give us a call at (734) 254-1140 to schedule an initial consultation.