Bill > HB4629

This bill updates Michigan's divorce law to use gender-neutral language and makes several procedural modifications to existing statutes. The bill changes references from "husband and wife" to "spouses" throughout the text and modifies several provisions related to divorce proceedings. Key changes include establishing waiting periods for divorce actions (60 days without children, 6 months with dependent children), allowing courts to take testimony earlier in cases of unusual hardship, clarifying conditions for granting divorce judgments when one party is not domiciled in the state, and updating language around property division, spousal support, and marriage annulment. The bill also allows courts to handle financial arrangements in divorce cases more flexibly, such as awarding parts of real and personal estate, establishing liens on property for support payments, and determining equitable divisions of assets. Importantly, the bill will only take effect if a corresponding constitutional amendment is approved, tying its implementation to a separate legislative process. The modifications aim to modernize the language and procedures of Michigan's divorce law while maintaining the core legal principles of the existing statutes.

Government Affairs

https://legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2025-HB-4629