When you’re going through a divorce or custody battle, you want to ensure that everything is buttoned up and clearly worded with no inconsistencies. This can prove difficult when you have to draft the many documents required – mandated forms, settlement agreements, support calculations, and of course the judgment itself. Don’t forget the notice of hearing, proofs of service and throw in a Friend of the Court approval to boot.
So what happens if something written in one document doesn’t match what is provided for in another? If it concerns support, Michigan Court Rule (MCR) 3.211 has the answer for you. In a divorce with minor children, child support must be addressed, even if the monthly support amount is zero. The State Court Administrator’s Office (SCAO) mandates the use of Uniform Support Orders (USOs), which are broken down into two types: Uniform Child Support Orders, or UCSOs, for child support, and Uniform Spousal Support Orders (USSOs) if spousal support is ordered. Both documents must tag along and be entered with the judgment or order.
You would think a quick copy and paste would eliminate any inconsistencies between the order and USO, right? Wrong. The USOs are forms which are vastly different from judgments, with fun boxes to check and grids to fill in carefully with the correct numbers from support guideline printouts. If you mix up the parties or confuse the variety of terms used (plaintiff, defendant, payer, support recipient), things can go downhill quickly.
MCR 3.211 provides that the “Uniform Support Order shall govern if the terms of the judgment or order conflict with the Uniform Support Order.” That means that what is written on the entered USO trumps. If your judgment says dad pays mom $500 a month in child support, but you reverse the names in the UCSO boxes and list mom as the payer and dad as the payee, mom’s paycheck is going to be missing $500 per month, which can have significant financial impact until it is corrected.
When it comes to spousal support, one important detail to ensure is correct on all documents is modifiability. If the judgment provides for spousal support to be non-modifiable and terminate after 5 years, but that is not mentioned on the USSO, nor does it incorporate/merge the judgment’s terms, guess what – spousal support is modifiable because the USO trumps.
USOs are updated on a fairly regular basis, and the court will only accept the most updated forms for entry, so if you haven’t done a divorce in a while, be certain to check that you are using the current form and that the terms of the order and USO match. When it comes to entered orders, you don’t want to hear the court start singing, “one of these things is not like the other."
