Wayne County Friend of the Court Analysis of Chief Justice Virgil Smith Administration

By Doug Dante


Chief Justice Virgil C. Smith's commentary on the state of the budget fails to recognize the problems created by his own employees at the Friend of the Court.

Firstly, the fact that the Wayne County Circuit Court has a "mother's room" and not a "parent's room" is indicative of the low esteem in which they place fathers.  It is all the more disturbing because Wayne County's exceedingly low percentages recommending father joint or sole custody serve in large part to drag down the custody rates of African American fathers to 3/5ths of White Non-Hispanic Fathers.  Protecting children by making decisions based on the facts, and not based on gender or race would help to relieve problems caused later by inadequate parenting.

It should also be noted that many children served by the Wayne County Court also receive public assistance, and I've heard father's comment that FOC workers have said to them things such as, "When mom receives aid, then dad must pay".  This implies that when deciding the custody of a child, the court does not use the best interests factors, as it is required to do by law, but rather manufacturers a custody agreement to maximize child support income - regardless of the actual best interests of the child, in apparent violation of state law.  The reason?  The child support is effectively taxed at a 100% rate to pay for the child, and the FOC obtains more income.  While it is appropriate to demand that absent parents pay the state for their children, it is wrong, and I believe illegal, to shove good parents out of their children's lives because it's in the best interests of the state or of the pocketbooks of the court.  Such shameful activities which hurt children are consistent with the very low rates of joint and father custody in Wayne County and other jurisdictions in which large numbers of children receive financial assistance.

Secondly, the Wayne County Friend of the Court, based on the 2008 Michigan Statistical Supplement, openly refuses to do its duties under Michigan Law and enforce the parenting time of parents.  Zero hearings held, zero hours of makeup parenting time given.  For children and parents desperate to maintain a mutual and loving relationship, sometimes in the face of domestic violence and child abuse, this misuse of taxpayer funds (Title IV-D)  is a terrible shame.  It is also ultimately a self defeating policy, as father access is associated with a host of positive child outcomes, including reduced rates of gang activity and reduced rates of teen pregnancy, which later put further burden on the courts.

Thirdly, like most FOCs, the Wayne County FOC is part of the FOC Association, which funnels taxpayer dollars intended to help children into apparently illegal lobbying.

Fourthly, FOC child support specialists in Wayne County, like others, are given means, motive, and opportunity to defraud gullible parents.  FOC form 10a, along with procedures for calculating support in the dark, makes it easy for a child support specialists, who are encouraged to maximize transfer payments, to manipulate "calculations" and obtain "voluntary agreements", maximizing pressure on parents by allowing them to simultaneously maintain control of how often they see their children through "recommendations" which are rarely questioned.  Evidence of fraud was uncovered in the 2008 MCSFM training, when FOC's own training manual acknowledged that "automatic imputation" (a violation of law) was the de-facto previous policy of the FOC.  This allowed the FOC to manufacture payments in violation of law which had no bearing in reality on the parent's ability to pay, obtain a parent's signature through coercion and threats that they will never again see their children, and maintain that those calculations were accurate in court later.  (The FOC Association, uncomfortable with parents who were prepared to expose their activities in court, lobbied the legislature to change the law to prevent evidence of their  games from appearing on the record).

In conclusion, Justice Smith could substantially improve the financial outlook of the Wayne County FOC, and the welfare of children in his jurisdiction by ensuring that children are placed in homes where their best interests are maximized, and ensuring that the financial implications of the court and state, nor the race and gender of parents are not given inappropriate influence, enforcing parenting time so that children and parents can enjoy mutually beneficial relationships and are not subject to abuse and domestic violence, drop out of the FOC Association and ensure that taxpayer dollars intended for children go to those children, and take the necessary steps to end child support fraud which evidence indicates has been systematic in the past.