Family Law: When is the right time to file for a divorce? 72 hours later?

True story...

 

Client calls my office on a Monday morning and says he made a "terrible mistake" over the weekend.  I had represented him on some other legal matters that were very low on the "terrible" scale and I thought he was calling about something criminal and I was getting ready for a horrible story involving someone in the hospital, or worse.  His story?...  He and his girlfriend, despite no engagement and no earlier conversation at all about marriage, thought it was a good idea to get married on the Friday before the weekend.  They drove to Toledo, Ohio where there was no waiting period to get married.  They got married and promptly drove back to Michigan.  He dropped off his girlfriend at her parent's house where she lived and he drove back to his parent's house where he lived.  They didn't spend any time together after driving back from Ohio and they didn't talk during the weekend.  He couldn't explain why they did it, but he knew he did not want to be married.  Unfortunately in Michigan, once you are legally married, except for only a few exceptions, you must file for divorce and my client did.  Even though they were only married for 72 hours when he filed for divorce, she still asked for his car... she didn't get it.  That was definitely the right time to file for divorce.  The lesson of this story is that in most circumstances, the sooner the better.