13 On Your Side: Frustrations with the Friend of the Court system

 
These are just a few of the dozens of complaints sent to WZZM 13 On Your Side about Friend of the Court.
"We often get complaints that say, 'you ain't no friend of ours," says Kent County Friend of the Court John Cole. Cole knows the agency is the target of criticism, but he explains, "We're not supposed to be a friend of theirs. We're impartial to either party."

In Kent County alone, Friend of the Court has 40,000 cases. Those cases are handled by about 45 enforcement staffers. Privacy regulations do not allow Friend of the Court to discuss individual cases.

But there are many cases out there. Cases like James Vodry, who says he's raised his teenaged son since he was born, even after the boy's mother left the country in 2001. The court awarded Vodry legal custody in 2008. Kent County Friend of the Court is now trying to locate the mother to begin collecting child support from her.

But, Vodry still owes her nearly $30,000 dollars in back child support. Vodry says, "They just keep sending me this paperwork. I don't understand it. It seems like it should be an easy fix."

Meanwhile, Vodry has been in and out of jail for a number of issues including the back child support he owes and having his drivers license suspended for owing child support. He says, "But then I had to drive to get to work to pay the money. So therefore I got pulled over and had to go back to jail."

John Cole of Kent County Friend of the Court says FOC collects as much as it can. But, he says, "We're collecting about 67 percent of our charges, which means that 33 percent of our charges are not collected."

And Kent is one of Michigan's leading counties for collections. Still, Kent County cases owe $425 million in back support. Law enforcement agencies can help, but Cole says they are usually busy with violent crimes.

Matthew Dykstra says he hasn't seen his kids since shortly after his 2008 divorce and his youngest child is only two. "I just want to see my kids," says Dykstra, "like a normal person."

The complication is Dykstra says he was accused of sexually abusing his children. He provided WZZM 13 with a report that concludes the accusations were unsubstantiated. But, Dykstra had to wait four months to get a copy of the report from the Ottawa County Friend of the Court. He says, "I waited about a month and then I called. I kept calling and they're like, oh yeah, we'll have it in another month." Dykstra is still waiting for a court date to determine child custody.

Ottawa County Interim Friend of the Court Tom Miller says they try to respond to inquiries within a week, but, they get more than 600 calls a day and it's particularly hard to keep up with phone calls. They prefer written correspondence. The Ottawa County Friend of the Court told WZZM 13 that these types of cases are emotionally charged family situations and that people look to FOC to solve their problems, but that's not always possible.

Theresa Bailey, who works at WZZM 13, has her own complaints. She says it is, "Frustrating. Very frustrating. Hard to get a hold of everybody. You wait on the phone for a half an hour sometimes just to get through to the main switchboard. And then you end up having to leave a message for your caseworker. And it can be up to two weeks before they call you back sometimes. It is very frustrating." Bailey is owed more than $20,000 in back child support and both of her child support cases were recently reviewed.

Cole says that's a reality of the economy. He explains, "For the last year, we've had to decrease a lot, or recommend the court decrease a lot of the orders."

But Bailey remains frustrated. She says, "As long as he's paying something, there's nothing we can do."

Amidst all the complaints, Cole says Friend of the Court just tries to do its job. He says, "We serve in the best interest of the children."

Cole says they are just trying to be fair to everyone involved. He points out that when you are dealing with two people who split up and are often very emotional, it can be a very difficult situation.

Kent County is now part of a pilot program to try to prevent conflicts. The program asks couples going through a divorce to help come up with their own parenting and child support plan rather than leaving it all up to a judge.

Like many state and county agencies, many Friend of the Court offices have had their budgets cut in recent years. However, because about two-thirds of the money comes from the federal government, FOC has not seen huge cutbacks.

To put things in perspective, Kent County has 40,000 FOC cases. Ottawa County has about 13,000 cases. That's almost 400 cases for each and every employee of the agencies.

If you have a specific issue, you can file a formal complaint with the Friend of the Court. All of the FOC officials we talked with say these complaints are taken seriously and go through several levels of review.

 
We know that people call 13 On Your Side for help and to get answers, but because of the privacy rules involved in the courts and family issues, this is one area where the only help we can offer is to bring attention to the bigger issue.