Custody

Custody and parenting time should not be ordered if the other parent is convicted of committing any of the following crimes against your child:

• criminal sexual conduct in the first, second, third, or fourth degree; or
• assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct.

The law also protects your child’s siblings from custody and parenting time with the convicted abuser. However, the law does allow the judge to consider granting parenting time with the victimized child or his/her siblings if both of the parents and the victimized child, depending on his/her age, agree to it.¹

In addition, if your child was conceived as a result of the abuser committing any of the above-mentioned acts against you, the offender cannot get custody or parenting time. Even if the abuser wasn’t convicted of one of those crimes, custody and parenting time will still be denied if you are able to present the judge with clear and convincing evidence that the crimes was committed against you.

However, this does not apply if:

• the conviction was based on you being a minor between 13 and 16 years of age at the time; or
• after the conviction or after you presented evidence to the judge about the sexual abuse in your custody case, you and the other parent lived together and took care of the child together.²

¹ MCL § 722.27a(6); MCL § 722.25(6)
² MCL § 722.27a(4); MCL § 722.25(2)