Fight The Friend Of The Court: The FOC SCAM AND THE DAMAGE IT DOES

The Friend of the Court

First things first...Let's get the basics out of the way. As the name states above in black and white. The Friend of the Court also known as the F.O.C. is not the Friend Of the Parent or Friend Of the Child. Now I would understand how a lot of people might assume that F.O.C. could or might stand for the "Friend Of the Child" but like it or not it is without a question the Friend Of the COURT. Do not allow thier mission statement below fool you.

Mission Statement

To serve families with Friend of the Court cases, and the Kent County Community at large, in a respectful, fair, and equitable manner.
(source-http://www.accesskent.com/CourtsAndLawEnforcement/FriendoftheCourt)

Now I know that some of you are going to automatically assume that I might be some disgruntle dead beat Dad that simply doesn't or didn't want to pay child support anymore and I have to say that, that couldn't be further from the truth. I actually found out about Title IV section D after doing some research while trying to resolve my own 13 year long nightmare with friend of the court.

Now you should probably know that I was incarcerated when my daughter was born but was released not long after her birth. so that state actually paid for her birth. which landed me a medical bill for $3,465.00. No child support order was ever given or owed. Just the cost of my daughters birth totalling $3,465.00

Needless to say even though I paid that 3465.00 dollars off in the first year...over the next 13 years I went to jail several times for months at a time. Had to be bailed out a few times when I could in order to keep my jobs, and was forced to pay what I now call extortion money averaging $500.00 every show cause hearing,Which was about seven to ten hearings...on top of that... during those thirteen years they garnished all my pay checks and offset (took all ) my tax refunds.

13 years AND 15 THOUSAND DOLLARS later they, (the Friend Of the Court) still claimed I owed for my daughters birth...$3,465.00 dollars and they were still ordering me to show cause hearings and threatening to send me to jail if i didn't pay 500.00. every time. So I paid when I could and went to Jail when I couldn't

I know you have to be saying, Mike why didn't you just show them the payment receipts....Well....Many times over the 13 years I did exactly that, I showed printouts of all my payments, receipts for payments, with state seals all over them. I either had them mailed to me by the FOC or gotten them from the FOC clerk at the window right before going to a show cause hearing. Every single time... the receipts were either no good...or the print outs weren't exactly proof of my payments and every single damn time I was threatened by the case manager with Judge and Jail if I didnt pay $500 right then.

Where the hell was all the money I was paying going? It sure wasnt going to the original $3,465.00 for the birth of my daughter. Well looking closely at the receipts I discovered the money I was paying was going to so-called attorney fees, Statutory service fees and sur-charges...not one penny went to the original debt.

GRRRRRR They were being slick as fuck and keeping me in the system...but why me and why even do it at all

The last time they did it...They extorted the rent and house payment out of me while i was holding my little girl and my family and I were evicted for failure to pay our rent.. But before that...while they had me in the office,,, threatening me for what would be the last time...I snapped....I mean fuckin snapped! I got up to leave...he threatened to call the cops cuz I was yelling at him. and I looked around at everyone staring and threatened the life of anyone and everyone who was gonna stand between me and the door outta there. It was a highly dramatic event. That could have easily went south.

That was when I finally started to figure it out... there had to be something to it.I knew I wasn't the only one having these kind of problems...Over the years I had I found tens of thousands of people going through the same shit I was.

Some very serious money was being extorted from thousands of good men and women whose lives were being destryed, even my best friend of 30 yrs was going thru it and it was all being done by the FOC and the State of Michigan...there had to be some scam going on and well it was either I go postal on them or do it anouther way. A more cool headed approach. So I started doing what I do for a hobby, I started researching. It took some time but ....I found it.

To make this story short...I found (Title 4 section D) of the Social Security Act. I'll tell you more about it soon enough...but needless to say. I got on the phone and the internet with the tens of thousands of people being screwed and organised em a little. and then got on the phone to the chief prosecutor with the Friend of the Court of Kent County...who at this point knew exactly who I was... And I told him this....

That I was going show up the very next morning...on the front steps of the Friend of the Court with thousands of copies of Title 4 Section D and a couple hundred people with signs...explaining what (title 4 section d) was. if he ddnt give me what I wanted.

He initailly kinda blew me off and said you do what you have to mike and he hung up....I spent the rest of the day callin attornies. I called a couple hundred of them in the tri state area. . All of them said I had a case and all of them said I'd never find an attorney that would take the state on with this case. I was blown away. I had an open and shut case they all admitted it, but not one would take it. Hmmmmm

That very next morning I got another surprise. It was the Procecuting attorney for the Friend Of the Court giving in to some of my demands asking"Mike what is it you want". I told I wanted off the FOC list and wanted ALL my money back that I over payed, Which would have been about 12 thousand dollars. He said no on the money but agreed to take me off the list If I stopped what I was doing.

I hate to say it...but I took what I could get. I was very happy to finally be able to get them off my ass and with that I agreed and called the whole thing off. on a promise from him that he'd send me the letter asap. He said he would and believe it or not he did. I have it to this very day.

To this very day I kick myself in the nuts for not takin advantage of the power I had. I instantly become selfish and thought only of myself and well...I think it's time I correct a wrong.

Okay so briefly what exactly is Title IV section D and how does it affect you. Well to summarise it...it is a federally funded incentive program designed to reward child support order establishment and fund child support enforcement programs. This allows the states to generate huge amounts of revenue, the more families and individuals they destroy, finagle to keep in the system the more money or incentive monies the States get from the Federal Government.