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Family Law LitigationHunter v. Hunter: Michigan Supreme Court Increases Legal Protections For Parents In Child Custody DisputesThe Michigan Supreme Court increased legal protections for parents in child custody disputes against third parties in Hunter v. Hunter, when it accepted the Women's Law Project's argument that a rehabilitated mother’s past actions should not be dispositive of her current fitness to parent. Although the mother of four children was gainfully employed, had a home suitable to raise her children, and had successfully overcome an addiction to drugs, the trial court found her “unfit” to parent based on her past drug addiction, brief incarceration for theft, lower earnings, and cohabitation with a man to whom she was not married. The Court of Appeals affirmed. The mother appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, where the Women’s Law Project filed an amicus brief in support of the appellant. In the brief, amici argue that the trial court’s decision, affirmed by the Court of Appeals, applied an ad hoc analysis that unfairly deprived a mother of her constitutionally-protected right to raise her children by focusing heavily on irrelevant factors such as unmarried cohabitation, income, and past conduct. On July 31, 2009, The Michigan Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case in favor of the appellant, directing the Circuit Court to “conduct a new best interests hearing in which it must consider all relevant, up-to-date information,” and to “not grant custody to the [third-party] plaintiffs unless plaintiffs demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that custody with defendant [natural mother] does not serve the children’s best interests.” The Women’s Law Project, in coordination with Michigan local counsel Holli J. Wallace, represented the California Women’s Law Center, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, and Northwest Women’s Law Center as amicus curiae in Hunter v. Hunter, Supreme Court No. 136310. |
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