Friend of the Court Bureau

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 Department of Human Service's Office of Child Support to coordinate FOC offices in providing Title IV-D services.

The FOCB's primary functions are to:

• Establish and implement child support policy and guidelines.
• Establish and implement parenting time and custody policy and guidelines.
• Develop and publish information pamphlets for public use.
• Provide training to FOC offices and their staffs.
• Develop forms for litigants to use to change child support, custody, parenting time, or domicile or residence, and to obtain a payment plan for support.
• Develop public education and orientation programs.
• Develop standards for procedures to transfer part or all of the responsibilities for a case from one office to another.
• Develop the Michigan Child Support Formula.
• Develop caseload and staffing standards.
• Develop guidelines to encourage plain language.
• Issue an annual grievance report.
• Certify alternative dispute resolution training programs.
• Assist the Office of Child Support in developing the Michigan Child Support Enforcement Information System.

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.

Resources and guidance about child support, parenting time, and custody matters for servicemembers 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. The quickest and easiest ways to get information about child support are to call the friend of the court office in the circuit court that has the child support order and use the interactive voice response (IVR) system or sign up to use MiCASE and get case information online.

The friend of the court IVR system numbers can be viewed at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/FIA-IVR-Phone-Numbers_94093_7.pdf.  The best way to get information about enforcing or changing child custody, parenting time, or support is to contact the local friend of the court office that has the order.

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.