Wayne County Friend Of The Court, Michigan
Was told by Michigan Governor's office to basically call down

It took the State of Michigan almost 2 years to even get my child support case going. Then, because I was living in Wayne Coounty by then, they finally got it going. It was set at $10 per week when he wasn't working and $40 when he was for my daughter and he was making approx$9.00 per hour 40 hours a week.

Finally, I get all excited because I can finally make it with out help from the state. Excitement was very short lived. This case was set in the end of 1995 when my daughter was 2. He left state at the end of 1996 while not paying a dime not to mention the biggest upset was that he didn't want to see her.

He called about once a year, never asked to talk to our daughter. This to me was more uspetting then the lack of child support. Anyways, through a conversation in one of his once a year phone calls, I found out he was living in Texas and what type of job he was doing. I was all excited again, possiblity of getting some help finally because they can now track him through his Social Security number on IRS, phone, cable, electric etc... So I called and gave the information to Wayne County and sat and waited patiently. Absoutely, nothing!

Then, he moves to Mississippi and meets up with his current wife and her four children. Supposedly, from what he reported to a family friend, he moved from Texas to Mississippi for a job making $22 an hour with the possibility of overtime. Of course, he failed to contact Wayne County with any job information nor did he report that his income had went up substantially. No big deal, though the extra money would help because I was working a minimum wage job, at least I had the chance of getting at least $40 per week.

His current wife called Wayne County to give him information to do an Income Withholding Order, my guess was he was to lazy to send it on his own weekly. So finally after 9 or 10 years without a dime, I finally started receving child support, Thank you God.

Mind you, he still hadn't reported that he was making alot more than $9 per hour. It states in the FOC handbook you have a right to have a review done every 36 months. Though their suppose to do a review automatically, they charged me either $40 or $60 to do the review and because I wasn't sure exactly how much he was making and he sure wasn't going to tell them, they dropped it and I lost my money.

One year later they sent us both papers and we had to fill out our income and the number of dependants we had.By then, through illness, I was now receiving only $600 a month Social Security Disabilty. Yes, $600 for me and by then I only had 2 children living with me, one not being his. Anyways, he called up throwing a fit that they were doing the review and that because of it, he now had to pay $100 per week instead of the $40. I told him, you have to understand, if they had done the review every 36 months like they were suppose to you would've been paying alot more then $40 a week long before now.By this time, he had married the woman he was with and theynow had her 4 daughters and 2 between him and his wife.

July 17 they raised his child support from $40 to $100 per week. He, needless to say, was outraged. I need to point out that, I do give him credit that fromt he time he finally started paying and when his support went up he had caught up on back support. Even though his support was $100 per week after the 17th of July he disagreed with the amount and asked for a hearing that was set in August. It does need to be said, that aside from his weekly of $40 he never sent my daughte anything, not even a card for her birthday or Christmas in 13 years.

We went all the way to Detroit, from Lupton which is about a three hour drive (I kept my daughter out of school so she could see her dad for a few minutes at the hearing since he said he would be there and he lives in Mississippi), he never showed.instead he sent a fax agreeing to the money amount. Keep in mind that his suppport went up after July 17 regardless of the heairng. He continued to pay $40 throught he end of August. So for the six weeks he was suppose to pay a total of $600 he only paid $40, which is better than some get. But from Sept to present I haven't received a dime. He owes me approx $2700 dollars.

The FOC knows exactly where he is living and working and only after I called down throwing a fit, after racking up my phone bill trying to get through, did theyfinally send a notice to his employer stating that they were not complying with the Court Order for Income. Nothing, not one response. They Court did nothing.

So again, rackingup my phone bill, I called and through a fit and they put in for a show cause hearing, that is WHEN they can get so setting it. Just to find out, that even if he doesn't show up to the court hearing and they put a warrant out for him, since it isn't a felony amount they cannot enforce it outside of Michigan. This is something I was not made aware of, UNTIL I finally got ahold of the Governor's office and they informed me that because he was out of state, he would have to be registered through Wayne County's Interstate Unit and I had to put the request, in writing, requesting that this case not only be registered through the interstate unit but also with Mississippi courts so they have the jurisdiction to enforce the warrant they put out for failure to pay. WAYNE COUNTY NEVER told me this. I would have never known had I not contacted the Governor's office about having to put it in writing and that the warrant if issued could only be enforced in Michigan,

It's bad enough that you have to run up your phone bill trying to get through to them when most other FOC offices have a 800 number, when you finally get through these people act like their disgusted that you are wasteing their time trying to get support for your child/children. Not to mention, the lady I spoke to at the Wayne County FOC said exactly, "most of these cases lay dormant until somebody calls down or shows up bitching enough". My statement to this lady and to the Governor's office was, why don't you do an investigation and findout exactly how many of these cases are owed child support that are receiving assistance and then figure how many wouldn't even be entitled to assistance if Wayne County did their job and enforced these orders.

My son's dad, whom my case is through Ogemaw County, has a case through Wayne County and he is over $70,000 behind on two of his children down their and is out walking around. Not to mention he is $25,000 behind on my son in my county. Even though Wayne County charged him with a felony amount, because their jails are so overcrowded, he was facing 5 years in prison and all he got was 4 months in the county jail and was released early due to ever crowding.

To those of you that don't know much about he law, let it be known, because he was already charged and convicted and served time on that felony, even though the amount of time was petty, they cannot by law, charge him again, ever on a felony for that case because then double jeporady attaches (cannot be charged twice with the same crime).

Needless to say, Wayne County and the judged that sentenced him on this really screwed up. Might I add, in case some of you payors are wondering, this is a man, that when they took hi license for back child support could care less, he just drives around on a suspended license. So all together, on both cases, he owes over $95,000 and yes, is out awlking around. So you payors that are spending time in jail for amounts such as $3,000 etc... You should be outraged.

So with advice from the Governor's office itself, call down and complain constantly until you get something down, make yourself known in that office, and for those of you who have the payor out of state, contact t your FOC, in writing and have that case registered with the Interstate Unit and with the state the payor rsides in. Just in case anybody is wondering, I'm still waiting on news from Wayne County about what their actions will be on my case and when you do get ahold of the FOC office tell them that your doing what the Governor's Office instructed you to do. Good Luck

Sue
Lupton, Michigan
U.S.A.

Company: Wayne County Friend Of The Court, Michigan
Country: USA
State: Michigan
City: Detroit
Address: Penobscot Building 645 Griswold Avenue Detroit Michigan 48226
Phone: 3132245300

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