Joint Custody Petition Drive Kicks Off in Michigan

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http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0403/12/d06-89688.htm

Friday, March 12, 2004

Joint custody drive kicks off

Dads of Michigan seek law mandating divorced couples must share kids
By Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News

Fathers would no longer spend thousands of dollars and hours in court fighting for joint custody of their children under a proposed ballot initiative being launched today by Dads of Michigan, a local fathers rights group.

The group is beginning a petition drive, which needs 254,206 signatures by May 26 for the measure to appear on the November ballot, to amend Michigan's custody law so there is a presumption of joint physical and legal custody of divorcing couples, unless one party is declared unfit.
Family court judges decide custody issues, and fathers have long pointed to statistics that they say shows the system is biased and nearly always favors the mother in custody decisions.

"Right now, the paradigm is one parent is better than the other and will have custody of the children while the other parent should be the every-other-weekend kind of parent," said James Semerad, chairman of the Dads of Michigan Political Action Committee based in Bloomfield Hills.
Called Children Need Both Parents, the initiative follows two similar but unsuccessful legislative attempts in the mid-1990s and 2002 and a petition drive in 2000 that failed because the 10 people who collected signatures failed to get enough.

This time, Semerad said, there are more than 1,000 people collecting signatures, and many will be outside local post offices Saturday and other days until enough support is collected.

Gary McDonald, a Dearborn Heights father who recently fought for nine months and spent $11,000 to get joint custody of his 2-year-old son, Justin, hopes to see the measure on the ballot and written into law.
"The love from a father is no different from what a mother would have," said McDonald, 44. "They are equal to begin with."

Friend of the Court custody recommendations
Out of 13,430 cases in 2002:
* 8,669 cases, or 65 percent, for the mother
* 1,942 cases, or 14 percent, for the father
* 2,594 cases, or 19 percent, for joint custody
* 225 cases, or 2 percent, for a third party
Source: Marcia McBrien, spokeswoman for the Michigan Supreme Court

You can reach Kim Kozlowski at (313) 222-2024 or [email protected].