Not everyone is ready to cut ties with his or her spouse when a marriage relationship breaks down. If a “legal separation” sounds better, or if you are reliant on your spouse for medical benefits, a Judgment of Separate Maintenance may be the better option than divorce. Find out how this alternative to divorce works, and whether it is right for you.
A Judgment of Separate Maintenance is an Alternative to Divorce
In most cases, when a marriage relationship breaks down, the process ends in divorce. Divorce legally ends your marriage, resolves issues related to your shared household and property, and resolves your legal and financial ties to one another. But a Separate Maintenance action is different.
In Michigan, a complaint for separate maintenance essentially asks the Michigan family court to grant you a legal separation. A separate maintenance action can divide up your shared property, establish child custody orders and parenting time schedules, and even provide alimony, spousal support, and orders for the maintenance of family property. The difference is, at the end of the case, you will still be married to your spouse, and that can be a good or bad thing, depending on your circumstances.
Why You May Want a Judgment of Separate Maintenance vs Divorce
Judgments of Separate Maintenance are rare compared to Judgments of Divorce. But they may be the right decision for you if you fall into one of these categories.
Separate Maintenance Lets You Stay Married for Religious Reasons
There are several religious groups that continue to discourage or even deny followers' ability to get a divorce. If your beliefs prevent you from divorcing your spouse without committing a sin or going against your faith, a Judgment of Separate Maintenance can allow you to stay married while living separate lives. Similarly, you may want to use a separate maintenance action or separation agreement if you and your spouse are going through religious or psychological marriage counseling to preserve your union.
Dependent or Disabled Spouses Can Keep Insurance Benefits
A more common reason to file a separate maintenance action involves ensuring that the non-wage-earning spouse is provided for. While spousal support can go a long way to covering a dependent or disabled spouse's financial needs, nothing can require a person's employer to provide benefits or health insurance for an employee's ex-spouse. If you and your spouse agree that coverage should continue, a separate maintenance action can provide you both the freedom to live your lives, while still providing the coverage you need to take care of your health.
Preserving Military Benefits for Servicemembers' Families
This consideration is especially important for divorcing military families. Military law requires service members to support their children and dependents. It also allows for a former military spouse to receive certain ongoing benefits (including TRICARE medical coverage) under what is known as the “20/20 rule” – where the servicemember had been a member of the military for at least 20 years and the marriage lasted at least 20 years. For TRICARE, there must be an overlap of at least 15 years, while other benefits require a 20 year overlap. Military pension benefits will also only be paid directly to a military spouse whose marriage lasted at least 10 years.
Because of these time limits, there may be good reason for military spouses to stay married, at least for a while. A Separate Maintenance action also allows a military spouse to continue to act as a point of contact for the military, if something happens while the service member is deployed.
When Divorce is Better than a Judgment of Separate Maintenance
However, not everyone wants to continue to stay married after they are separated. For many couples, a clean break is better than the two-step process of separate maintenance followed by divorce. This is especially true if they can negotiate a separation agreement in the meantime.
Increased Litigation Costs If You Get Divorced Later
If you are confident that you are headed toward divorce eventually, getting a Judgment of Separate Maintenance may just mean you will go over the same road twice. Unless you carefully negotiate the terms of your Judgment of Separate Maintenance to dictate what will happen in the event of divorce, you could end up litigating all over again when one of you decides to formally end the legal relationship.
Continued Contact with Your Estranged Spouse
Another reason to skip the legal separation comes from the emotional weight of continuing to be tied to your former spouse. While you will still need to communicate to co-parent any children, you could get a clean break by skipping the separate maintenance action and going straight for divorce.
Separate Maintenance Prevents Remarriage
However, the biggest restriction a separate maintenance action places on the parties is that it prevents them from getting remarried. Remember that a Judgment of Separate Maintenance does not dissolve the bonds of matrimony. Under Michigan law, no person can be married to more than one person at a time. Even an overlap of a single day is enough to render a marriage void and subject to an annulment. If you are beginning a new romantic relationship, you may not want to pursue a separate maintenance action because it will prevent you from saying “I do” if that relationship goes well. That said, if you are receiving substantial benefits from your former spouse, like health insurance or military benefits, a separate maintenance judgment may be well worth the limit on your freedom to remarry.
Get Help With a Separate Maintenance Action from a Michigan Family Lawyer
At Bebout, Potere, Cox & Bennion, P.C., we care about you and your family. We help individuals and families in Rochester Hills, Rochester, Troy, Lake Orion, Oxford, Oakland County, Macomb County and throughout Southeast Michigan. We can help you decide between a separate maintenance vs divorce, and walk you through the process. Call us at 248-651-4114 or contact us here to speak to an attorney.
