Dealing
with your Friend of the Court (FOC) may not be number one on your bucket list
of life goals. Hopefully these tips will
help you achieve the best result in your FOC case.
The FOC
provides both parenting time and child support enforcement. If you were denied parenting time by the
other parent, you may have recourse. The
first thing I look for in parenting time complaints is…wait for it…do you have
an order that provides you with specific parenting
time? Meaning, is your parenting time
detailed, and spelled out in a court order?
For example, it may say, “Father has parenting time every Tuesday, from
5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., and every other weekend, from Friday at 5:00 p.m.
until Monday at the commencement of school or 8:00 a.m. if there is no
school.” This amount of specificity in a
court order allows me to properly address your complaint – if you are alleging
that you were denied your parenting time last Tuesday, from 5:00 p.m. until
8:00 p.m., BAM, I have a court order telling me that yes, indeed, you did have
parenting time that day.
This is
why I emphasize to people who want to just agree on parenting time to have a
minimum back-up schedule in the event that they cannot agree. It’s amazing what a new boyfriend or
girlfriend will do to the parents’ ability to get along. If your order simply states “parenting time
is as the parties agree,” or “at the Mother’s discretion,” this means you do
not have specific parenting time. This
language is vague and does not entitle you to a particular day or time. Even if you’ve been exercising parenting time
specifically for the last two years, if your court order does not match what
you’ve been doing, we can’t enforce it.
At that point, you would need to file a motion to ask for specific
parenting time. MCL 722.27a(8) provides
for specific parenting time to be granted if either party requests it (of
course, this is subject to the scrutiny of the best interest factors and other
parenting time factors).
Be
mindful of all time limits that exist when dealing with the FOC. Your paperwork will state the time frame that
you have to object to recommendations, or abatements of support. You may only have so many days that you can
request assistance on a parenting time denial before it’s too late and no
enforcement action will be taken. I
adhere strictly to time limits – if I don’t, it’s a slippery slope to consider
one person’s objection even though it’s nine days late. The rules are there for a reason – you may
not know them or be aware, but it’s your responsibility (whether you have an
attorney or not) to make yourself aware of the deadlines.
If you
don’t turn in your paperwork on time for a child support review, and you are
the petitioning party, your petition may be dismissed. If you aren’t sure of the time frame, call
and ask.
Speaking
of paperwork, turn in all of your requested documents. No one likes playing the guessing game, and
that includes FOC employees. Even if you
are coming in for an appointment on parenting time, and you have no intention
of changing child support, if you are asked to bring in financial information,
please do it! At minimum, this paperwork
can remain in the FOC file, and if child support is an issue a year down the
road, and we don’t hear from you then, we’ve got something to potentially
provide us with your information.
Be sure
to tell us, just like you’d advise your doctor, if you move, your insurance
changes, etc. We do not want to make
your life difficult (really we don’t).
Get ahead of any potential issues and be as cooperative as possible when
asked for information. My best advice in
dealing with the FOC is to be proactive, not reactive.
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