The Friend of the Court Bureau analyzes statistics; reviews laws, regulations, and court rules; and reviews grievances and responses to provide guidelines for friend of the court operations. The FOCB assists circuit courts across the state with management assistance to improve local friend of the court operations. The FOCB also cooperates with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Child Support to coordinate FOC offices in providing Title IV-D services.
The FOCB's primary functions are to:
Measure of Child Support Paid in Month Due
What is a Rate of Child Support Paid in the Month Due?
A rate of child support paid in the month due is an annual percentage of child support ordered that was paid and disbursed in the month due.
Why is it Important to Measure a Court’s Collection of Current Child Support?
Child support payments help to ensure minimum standards of living for children and reduce the need for public resources to support children of divorced parents. Additionally, counties that collect and disburse 40 percent or more child support in the month it is due receive federal incentives. The incentive rate increases as the disbursement rate increases, up to 79 percent. Courts that disburse 80 percent or more have maximized the incentives earned.
The amount ordered to be paid includes child support, child care, ordinary medical, educational, interstate, bonuses, foster care charges, birth expenses, medical support, Medicaid reimbursement, and payee birthing expenses.
How is the Rate of Child Support Measured?
For each county, the annual amount of child support paid and disbursed in the month due is divided by the amount that was ordered to be paid.
Resources for Parents
Custody, Parenting Time, and support
Guidelines on custody and parenting time and the child support formula are available to assist parents in their decision-making and to help them understand how the court and the friend of the court make decisions about these matters. See the links to the right to access these resources. Also available are manuals describing how friends of the court investigate custody and parenting time matters and arrive at recommendations for the court.
Court Forms
Search for a form. Get legal help from the Self Help Center or from Michigan Legal Help, an online service.
Reserve and National Guard
Resources and guidance about child support, parenting time, and custody matters for service members who are on active duty.
Your Friend of the Court Case
The Friend of the Court Bureau does not supervise local friend of the court offices and does not have access to friend of the court records. To obtain information about enforcing or changing child custody, parenting time, or support, obtain contact information for the friend of the court by selecting the appropriate county in our trial court directory, consult the list of interactive voice response (IVR) system numbers, or sign up to use MiCASE and get case information online.
If you want payment information, the IVR system will allow you to speak to a State Disbursement Unit customer service representative. The IVR system will also provide you with information about enforcement action, coupons, and how to provide an address or name change. Because many of the counties share the same IVR system number, you may need to type in the first three letters of the county that has your friend of the court case.