ACTION ALERT: Join Me in Sending Recommendations for the Michigan Fr
Posted by: "Doug Dante" [email protected] dougdante1
Wed Sep 2, 2009 4:59 pm (PDT)
Hi,
Please join me in sending recommendations for the Michigan Friend of the Court to Michigan's Judiciary Committees. To make it easy, I've created a form message that you can use below. Use this message, or just share your own personal experiences.
Thank you in advance to the many people who will take action.
Sincerely,
Doug Dante
TO:
markmeadows@
Subject:
Recommendations for the Michigan Friend of the Court
Body:
Members of the Michigan House/Senate Judiciary Committees,
Here are my recommendations for
the family justice system in Michigan or the Michigan Friend of the
Court. As
you know, these programs effect millions of Michiganders, including
children, parents, and extended family members, and as members of the
Michigan House and Senate Judiciary Committees, you are the people's
elected representatives regarding these matters.
There is a previously available summary and recommendations here which may assist you:
http://www.scribd.
However, recommendations to you committee include matters such as:
* Reform child custody procedures so that African American fathers are no longer only 3/5hs as
likely as White Non-Hispanic fathers to receive a custody
recommendation for joint custody or a for father sole custody.
http://www.scribd.
*
Reform court procedures to ensure that parents and children get due
process and that an impartial court has weighed all of the relevant
facts.
http://www.scribd.
http://www.scribd.
* Reform the Friend of the Court Association to stop illegal lobbying using taxpayer dollars.
http://www.scribd.
* Reform the office of court recorder so that all litigants can get contemporaneous recordings, and we don't
have consistent accusations that court proceedings were altered after
the fact by insiders.
http://www.scribd.
* Create an independent fraud tip line and an independent internal investigative unit at the FOC to uncover underhanded activities. Provide a mechanism for
members of the public to submit reports of fraud and underhanded
tactics to such an organization. Provide specific guidelines for
investigations, including undercover investigations, and provide
specific guidelines for turning over information received to law
enforcement. Provide specific guidelines for annual public reports of
investigations and wrongdoings uncovered.
http://www.scribd.
http://www.scribd.
http://www.scribd.
* Apply FOIA to the FOC and SCAO in matters not regarding a particular case,
including policy matters and those matters normally FOA-able in other
departments.
* Investigate evidence of fraud in child support calculations.
Change procedures so that fraud is more difficult, including requiring
that FOC must not coerce parents into signing away their rights, as
they do on the standard FOC child support form, and change procedures
so that parents can actually see how the 2008 MCSFM is applied in their
case. Children are harmed when child support amounts are either inadequate or excessive.
http://www.scribd.
(Search for "fraud")
http://courts.
*
Review
the 2008 MCSFM. At this time , I do not believe that it
provides an adequate amount of the child's resources to his/her care
when in the care of the parent paying child support. In particular,
since the 2004-2008 formula, the elimination in the new 2008 formula of
the 50% overnight refund for more than 6 days as well as the
application of the new "difference of cubes" of overnights rule for
child support allocation means that children receive substantially
fewer family resources while in the care of one parent versus the care
of another. For example, a typical single child with a total base
support of $703.71 can receive only a paltry $29.37 per month to care
for his/her needs when spending about a third of his or her waking
hours at the paying parent's home. This is wrong and simply serves to
hurt children, although
it reduces the workload at the FOC and increases federal program income
for the FOC.
http://www.courts.
http://www.courts.
http://www.scribd.
(Search for "Parenting Time Offsets Could Often Be Insignificant"
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