Proposal: Michigan Friend of the Court Sunshine Act

8/14/2019 Proposal: Michigan Friend of the Court Sunshine Act

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If we the public can't see statistical summaries of FOC recommendations, then wehave no capacity to judge the fairness of any recommendation. A recommender maywillfully withhold all of the children they review from fathers, abusing his/herposition and endangering children, to satisfy his/her own prejudices in violationof the Michigan Constitution. This is plainly a structural problem that thelegislature must address.

We need to approach the legislature with a simple, free, proposal to resolve this.Here's my first cut:

Friend of the Court Sunshine Act (Proposed)

The Friend of the Court Act Shall Be Amended to add a section, whose contentsshall be:

For each local Friend of the court, and for each person who prepares 50 or morecustody recommendations for a Friend of the Court in a Michigan fiscal year (MCL522.507a), the State Court Administrative Office shall publish, includingelectronically, a yearly statistical summary of the recommendations made by thatperson. That summary shall include:

a) The name of the personb) The name of the Friend of the Courtc) The number of recommendations made by that persond) Statistical summaries of the recommended custody order, whether:

i) sole physical and legal custody for the motherii) sole physical custody for the mother, joint legal custodyiii) substantially equal physical and legal custody for the mother and fatheriv) sole physical custody for the father, joint legal custodyv) sole physical and legal custody for the fathervi) physical custody by a third party

$50,000 of the first $5,000,000 received by Michigan from federal incentive

payments (US Code Title 42 Section 658a) shall be allocated for this purpose, asit relates to "services relating to the establishment of paternity or theestablishment, modification, or enforcement of child support obligations" (US COdeTitle 42, Section 654, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph A.

For each judge that rules on 50 or more custody matters in a Michigan fiscal year,the State Court Administrative Office shall publish, including electronically, astatistical summary of that judge's custody rulings. That summary shall includethe same statistical information as the recommendations report.

$50,000 of the second $5,000,000 received by Michigan from federal incentivepayments (US Code Title 42 Section 658a) shall be allocated for this purpose, asit relates to "services relating to the establishment of paternity or the

establishment, modification, or enforcement of child support obligations" (US COdeTitle 42, Section 654, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph A.

For each local Friend of the court, and for each person who processes andcompletes 50 or more requests for modification of child support pursuant to MCL552.517, Section 17, d, in a Michigan fiscal year, the State Court AdministrativeOffice shall publish, including electronically, a yearly statistical summary ofthe decisions made by that person. That summary shall include:

a) The name of the personb) The name of the Friend of the Court


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c) The total number of requests for child support modification processed by thatperson from payors

i) the number for which the person determined that the order is due for reviewii) the number for which the person determined that the order is not due for

reviewd) The number of requests for child support modification processed by that personfrom payees

i) the number for which the person determined that the order is due for review

ii) the number for which the person determined that the order is not due forreview

$50,000 of the third $5,000,000 received by Michigan from federal incentivepayments (US Code Title 42 Section 658a) shall be allocated for this purpose, asit relates to "services relating to the establishment of paternity or theestablishment, modification, or enforcement of child support obligations" (US COdeTitle 42, Section 654, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph A.

For each local Friend of the court, and for each person who processes andcompletes 50 or more alleged custody or parenting time order violation pursuant toMCL 522.641, Section 41 in a Michigan fiscal year, the State Court AdministrativeOffice shall publish, including electronically, a yearly statistical summary of

the decisions made by that person. That summary shall include:

a) The name of the personb) The name of the Friend of the Courtc) The number of alleged parenting time order violations processed by that persond) The number for which the makeup parenting time was appliede) The number for which the person commenced civil contempt proceedingsf) The number for which the person filed a motino with the court for amodification of existing parenting time provisions to ensure parenting timeg) The number for which the person scheduled mediationh) The number for which the person scheduled a joint meetingi) The number for which the person declined to respond to an alleged custody orparenting time order violation because the party submitting the complaint had

previously submitted 2 or more complaints that were found to be unwarranted, costswere assessed against that party, and that party has not paid the costsj) The number for which the person declined to respond to an alleged custody orparenting time order violation because the alleged custody or parenting time orderviolation occurred more than 56 days before the complaint is submitted.k) The number for which the person declined to respond to an alleged custody orparenting time order violation because the custody or parenting time order doesnot include an enforceable provision that is relevant to the custody or parentingtime order violation alleged in the complaint.l) The number for which the person failed to follow MCL 522.641, Section 41.

The number in c above shall equal the sum of the numbers d-l.

$50,000 of the first $500,000 received by Michigan from federal Grants to Statesfor access and visitation programs (US Code Title 42 669b. ) shall be allocatedfor this purpose, as it relates to "to enable States to establish and administerprograms to support and facilitate noncustodial parents access to and visitationof their children,"

The State Court Administrators Office shall publish, including electronically, areport of use of federal Grants to States for access and visitation programs (USCode Title 42 669b. ). That report shall include:

a) The total amount of the grant


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b) The total amount of the grant used for mediationi) voluntaryii) mandatory

c) counselingi) of non-custodial parentsii) of custodial parentsiii) group counseling of both parents togetheriv) of children

d) educationi) of non-custodial parentsii) of custodial parentsiii) group counseling of both parents togetheriv) of children

e) development of parenting plansf) visitation enforcement

i) monitoringii) supervisioniii) neutral drop-off and pickup

g) development of guidelines for visitationh) alternative custody arrangementsi) Other

The total from a shall equal the totals of b-i.

For each expenditure or category over 5% of the total, the SCAO shall also includea summary of the expenditure and how it is used.

For each grant category above for which there is no expenditure, the SCAO shallinclude a summary of why the grant money was not used to "establish and administerprograms" in that category.

Each local Friend of the court, shall cooperate with the SCAO in maintaining acomplete record of grievances and transmitting them annually to the bureau. TheSCAO shall publish a report of all information received annually.

$50,000 of the fourth $5,000,000 received by Michigan from federal incentivepayments (US Code Title 42 Section 658a) shall be allocated for this purpose, asit relates to "services relating to the establishment of paternity or theestablishment, modification, or enforcement of child support obligations" (US COdeTitle 42, Section 654, Paragraph 4, Subparagraph A.

Penalties for failing to comply.

For each local friend of the court, the SCAO shall determine the extent to whichit complies with each of the reporting requirements above. For each report above,for which a local office fails to report, the SCAO shall deduct 1% of all paymentsto that local office. For partial compliance, it shall deduct 0.5%. Should a

local friend of the court fail to report in the same categories for 2 years, thededuction shall be increased by 25%. Should a local friend of the court fail toreport in the same categories for 3 years, the deduction shall be increased by50%. Under no circumstances shall the deduction exceed 10% of the total paymentsto that office.

All of the deducted payments shall be used to create a voluntary statewideinternet based automated electronic request processing system for the directprocessing and monitoring of child support modification requests, allegedparenting time violations, and grievances by parents. Such a system shall allowparents to make, track, and review requests online. Each local Friend of the


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Court may voluntarily use such a system, and the system will automaticallygenerate the reports required above to keep that office in compliance. Shouldthat system fail to generate the correct reports, the local office is still liablefor deducted payments, but such deductions shall be distributed to those localfriend of the court offices that are in compliance.

Documents

Proposal: Michigan Friend of the Court Sunshine Act