My divorce was final and the consent judgement went into effect on 4/1/01. The terms of the judgement required me to pay $236/wk in child support for my 2 boys, which I have no issue with and willingly pay. It also required me to pay $121.15/wk in spousal support because my fraud of an ex-wife claims to not make any money at her own business (which she has owned and successfully operated for 14 yers now) so as to commit income tax fraud. This same fraudulent income was reported to the FOC and was used by her lying attorney to get spousal support from me.
I lived there for 15 years, trust me, she makes lots of cash at her business, however I have no way of proving it, so I stuck paying this too. The sad part is, the FOC just took her word for it and refuses to investigate her finances.
The judgement required me to pay her the child and spousal support directly until the FOC began to withhold it from my paycheck, and this is where the problems start. I paid her the correct amount, on time, faithfully for 72 weeks before the FOC started withholding. Yes, 72 weeks! Why on earth did it take them 72 weeks, the only answer they give me is, "I don't know.". To top that off, they immediately assumed that I had violated the court order to pay her directly and accused me of not paying her at all for the 72 weeks, saying I was in arrears for well over $26,000 dollars.
They issued a withholding order to my employer requiring not only the ordered support, but much extra to cover arrears, and my employer is sending them 50% of my paycheck every week. This is causing a huge financial burden on me, as my budget, which was already tight, was based upon the correct amount and they are now getting over $88/wk or over $350/month from me that I do not owe.
I immediately contacted them when this order was issued in August and ws told "Oh well.". I was accused, tried, convicted, sentenced and punished, all without a trial, nobody even asked if I owed back support, they just said I did and that was that.in September of I filed a motion to have the support withholding changed to the correct amount and sent them proof that I had paid her directly in the form of 72 consectuve, dated money order receipts. At this time, they did away with human beings answering the phone, so there was no easy way of finding out the status of the motion or even if they had received it.
In February of yes, 5 months later, I received a copy of the motion saying it had been entered and was being reviewed. The envelope was postmarked February, but the motion inside was dated October, with a signature swearing it was mailed in October also.
Why then did it take 4 months to get to me? In the mean time, I receive notice that they are going to intercept both my federal and state income tax refunds (totaling over $2200), they have put this arrears on my credit report and reported me to the State Department, blocking me from getting a passport, which my employer requires for me to do overseas travel (they are about ready to fire me for not being able to do overseas travel, as I am getting pretty useless to them this way), who will they get the support from then?
They also sent a notice saying if they weren't paid soon, they would seize my home or put a lien against it (not that it's worth much, it's a 18 year old run down mobile home, of course the 'ex; lives in a $180,000 brick ranch with attached garage on a 1/2 acre wooded lot and has a lawn care service now).
So, even though I've done absolutely nothing wrong, they have trashed my reputation with my employer, as they think I'm a deadbeat, and they have trashed my reputation with anybody that sees my credit report, and prevented me from doing the job my employer wants me to do, they are withholding over $350/month excess from me, making it impossible to pay my own bills, they are going to intercept my income tax, which I need to pay the overdue bills that I can't pay due to the excess withholding and are threatening to take my home, all for something I did not do.
When the end of March tolled around and they still did not have any humans answering the phone, I tried their e-mail comments, which says a reply will be issued in 5-7 days, well, no reply ever came. I faxed a request to them, no reply ever came. On March 28, I took a day off work, paid for the gas and the outrageous parking in downtown Detroit to pay them a personal visit. After standing in line for 1.5 hours, I was again told, "I don't know", and "Oh well". So far, nobody will tell me why it took 72 weeks, why they assumed I was in arrears, why it took 5 months to acknowledge my motion to correct it, nor when it will be corrected, along with being paid back the excess I've paid, getting my tax refunds, having my credit fixed, and we all know, they can fix the damage they've done to my life and reputation.
When I persisted in wanting answers for my questions (which as a taxpayer and FOC feepayer, I think I'm entitled to), they asked me to leave the building. Finally, on May 3 (yes, 2 months after they said they were reviewing the motion), I received a copy of the order saying they were going to directly credit my account for the over $26,000 I paid here directly.
Well, it is now May 12, and according to their automated phone system, no credit has actually been put on my account and I am alledgedly still in arrears by the $26,000. At this time, they have not issued my employer a new withholding order to correct the amount from the 50% of my pay they are taking, to the original $236/wk and $121.15/wk., so they are still withholding way too much and sending to the FOC, which promptly turns around and sends it to my 'ex'.
I have been told, that once it is dispursed to her, I can not get it back. Why, they are wrong, I don't owe it, she's not entitled to it, it's my money, give it back. Doesn't her taking it and keeping it make her committing fraud. Doesn't the FOC knowing that it is wrong (as evidenced in the proof I sent them and the order for credit) and continuing to send her to her, make them aiding and abetting in a crime?
I sent them another e-mail on 5/5/03 asking all the same questions, still no reply from them as of 5/12/03. I sent them another e-mail this morning, still nothing. When will they fix the withholding? When will they fix it so I can get my own tax refunds? When will they remove the incorrect entry on my credit report? When will they allow me to gt a passport? When will they refund, what is now over $3300 dollars in overpayments? Between the overpayments and my tax refunds, it's over $5500 dollars of my money, and now $5500 in unpaid bills.
For the record, I did file an extension on my taxes, but I'm pretty sure that's only delaying the inevitable, they will surely get them somehow, as they have not done anything to stop it from being intercepted.
I and my fiance' have made phonecalls and wrote letter to the State Attorney General, a person he has assigned into child support issues, a State Senator, the Governor of Michigan, the State Director of child support, the State Director of the FOC, and if you get a reply, it's always, "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do", "I don't know", or "I can't believe they're doing this to you, it's wrong", and the all time most commong, "Oh well". When you contact an attorney and tell them it's a problem with the Wayne County Friend of the Court, they laugh and refuse to take the case, citing they impossibility of dealing with them, and the length of time it would take, making it not a profitable case.
Attorneys won't even try to fight them! A FOC representative told me herself, "The best thing that could ever happen to you, is to not get into our system to begin with.". How pathetic that their own employees would tell you that. Their system is beyond broken, and it's so bad they don't even know where to begin to fix it.
Instead of helping people and making things better, they are making things worse for everybody. I know they have just as many, undoubtedly more issues with real deadbeat fathers not paying, and I know they have issues paying out support that they have collected, so if it's that bad, why can't anybody do anything? I have been accused, tried, convicted, sentenced, and punished without a trial and have done absolutely nothing wrong. They have destroyed me financially and destroyed my reputation and I have done absolutely nothing wrong.
This is a travesty and an injustice and I don not believe they have the legal right to do this to me. There was 18 complaints on this website for the Wayne county Friend of the court before I entered mine, now 19, it should be obvious there is a serious problem there, and people's lives are being destroyed by them, somebody please help us!
The local TV networks have also run many stories about their problems, and the FOC just tells them "Oh well". The local ABC affiliate, WXYZ, channel 7 in Detroit, is running another story of their problems tonight during the 5:00 and 6:00 news, I bet they say "Were understaffed, we don't have the resources, oh well." again.
This is totally unacceptable, innocent people lives are at stake, something must be done, they must answer to somebody, they can not continue like unchecked renegades doing whatever they want, they are criminals, stop them, please!
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