Ottawa County Friend of the Court Review

I just don't understand how this is acceptable. Let's protest peps or nothing will happen, go to the governor website and complain.

What a joke!!! Avoid this place at all costs!! I have been both custodial and non custodial parent and they are worthless and don t investigate anything!! I personally have Steve White and literally hasn t ever investigated my case more than looking on his computer! Great work FOC!!

In the eyes of the Foc, Males are seen as dollar signs not father's. Nothing like legal hostage negotiation.

Men are treated like dogs. Slow processing, just horrible all around.

1.5 years dealing with them and every time my ex breaks court orders about parenting time and whatnot it's a "miscommunication." And when I prove that she's blatantly giving false information it's just ignored. Definently not for the fathers.

Money is the motive behind this entities actions. When I asked if they could visit with my daughters for custody investigation they said probably not because its not in the budget so I had to bring my daughters to them so they would interview them. But let child support fall behind and they are on it. Children should come first regardless of cost not money.

Steve white, a case worker is very rude. he lied, and when asked to speak to his supervisor, he told me no, that i was being confrontational, and just hung up on me.

He lied to me about my case, i have the correct info on my paper work, he tried to lie about it. My old worker i had for years i never had an issue with, this new guy takes over, and seems to have issues with understanding people and their questions.

I have had nothing but problems with Friend of the Court. Filed a case with a PPO back in July, was told it would be on the desk of the clerk for review and hearing date set that day. Called bi-weekly since then to find out if they set a hearing date (since i'm also waiting on child support for two babies). Every time I call, they say 'we'll look into it' 'we sent and email to see what is taking so long'. Please stop dropping the ball and hold your staff to a higher standard.

No issues with the FOC. I have sole custody as father of two young ladies and they leave me alone except a letter from time to time just to update me. They are a bit difficult to get ahold of so I can update required information about my daughters and I.
To those saying guy is just a paycheck, they treated my ex-wife the same until I signed of on wanting Child Support.

This Court is a corrupt, morally bankrupt, heart shattering farse! They don't care at all about CHILDREN. They only care about MINEY MONEY MONEY --and-- their Case Workers are imbecilic failed McDonald's employees, holding the Fate of your kids in their 6th grade educated hands.
Corrupt!
Inefficient.
Heartless!
Godless!
Hopeless!

FOC is a joke.. they are paid so much to do so little. I work 4 different jobs and I guess none of them "meet the standards" for these people. There for they take up to $150 weekly out of each paycheck. I get paid national guard pay monthly and they have it so it I have to pay weekly which is wrong. Up until a couple months ago my income was $13,000 a year and due to the help of a lawyer (who later charged me) issued a subpoena to see her pay also her income has tripled. Making 27,000 a year but they say because I work different jobs I get paid alot. I am behind in arrears due to me being away with the army and I came home and found out that they had in their system I was here working a civilian job but just not paying... I was gone. They want me to pay health insurance and just because you're in the military does not mean that it's free. $245 a month with a $435 deductible. The part that astonished me is that their supervisor Matt Schmidt sat down with me due to complaints about my caseworker and the entire time he was rude and had a cocky attitude. Literally giggling at my expense when I explained to him. He then tells me I have a new case worker and and for about 5-6 months I have been trying contact her and received nothing. When I went there I found out he liked to me and from behind the glass window he kept on with his cocky antics making remarks and walking around like he was god. He was beyond disgusting. FOC and CPS both were useless in their efforts. My ex's new boyfriend and her father were physically abusing our children and both of them have extreme domestic violence charges. Her father has even left our son home alone with a convicted pedophile. I let FOC know and I let CPS know also and their response was " there is nothing wrong with disciplining the child when they are bad." I will tell you that smacking the kids in the face, pulling their hair, smacking them on the back with a belt, pulling their ear to the point that it is swollen is not discipline. I took my son to the hospital and they ruled it out as abuse. Despicable human beings they are when it comes to safety ofy children and you don't care I take offense to that.

Please help. This court refused to recognize my sexual assault even when it resulted in the birth of a child. This court refused to believe that my ex admitting to child molestation and child pornography were forms of abuse. He was arrested and never convicted because admissions of guilt aren't evidence in Ottawa County. They accessed my SSA information to gain access to a 2nd part time employer when I was already paying child support. Yep. They even gave custody to a man that admitted to having addictions to child pornography and molestation. They gave me supervised visitation in a different town when I couldn't drive and I am disabled. They made me drive AWAY from Ottawa County which is where my son was born and visit him near his dad. This court only thinks about $$$$ they can get and not any person's rights to be free from abuses and will even step on your most basic human rights to that end. Just $$$$.

Over 200$ taken out of my check to go to the mother of my child and she gets 6$?!

Got a big lawsuit coming if my money just "dissappeared". I don't play that game.

Interesting. I can prove they stole over $4,000 from me and NONE of it went to my son. He wasn't even in the state for nearly a year. They recently sent me a letter offering to give back less than $100 of it. Proud to say they gave me custody of my son but on the other hand the FOC had made comments about not caring if my son lived or died when they previously kept him in an abusive home.

They really don't care about best interests of the children. Haven't seen my child in almost 3 years and not a soul there cares. All they care about is making those payments and collecting 'service charges'

Cannot get a hold of them. I do what they say will get me the fastest response and yet have received a phone call. On top I had a written agreement with the other parent and all of a sudden my child support changes. They need to get on the ball and answer questions when asked.

Horrible. not only is it confusing to use. nothing works nor do anything they say is easy to use. they also have never responded to messages as they state they will faster online then via the phone. typical government waste. they only care about their own jobs then actually getting things done and they are supposed to help make things easier. they don't they make it all worse.

Definitely friend of the court and not of the family. Not only did they take full physical AND legal custody from a perfectly loving mother with literally zero legitimate reason other than my ex could afford a lawyer and I couldn't, I can't even email my caseworker anymore, calling the office is a literal joke, and the website is difficult to navigate.

The whole FOC is stright up capitalism on broken homes and gives one or both parties a weapon to use against the other more than finding ways to keep families together. It's sick and twisted.

Ps. For the record, I am a mother. These conservative, old white men will target and go hard on a woman, too, if they think you 'left a perfectly good man'. The whole judgement reminded me of a kid writing a book report based on the summary on the back instead of reading the whole book. When decisions like this are being made, a LOT more should be going into it and each side should be heard respectfully and clearly. Because, ultimately, they just handed someone who was trying to keep control over me in an abusive way the tools to keep doing that even though I finally got the courage to leave.

Foc doesn t do anything about 2 states double dipping on my money! Won t even credit me Unprofessional and fraud people working. This court should really get investigated imo

Enigmatic. Unhelpful.

FOC is a lot like unsuspectingly walking into a haunted house that was owned by Scrooge McDuck. You go there wondering why you cant find anyone to help you and when you finally do find someone they just disappear behind a wall or emails. By the time they are done, you will be much poorer and are constantly haunted by them but only whenever you owe money.

Exhibit A: I have been going to this court several times a year and have never met my caseworker in person.

Exhibit B: In my email box right now sits an email that my caseworker sent to me "correcting" me with the incorrect walk in date. Yes. I was intentionally given the wrong walk in date so my caseworker could avoid me.

Exhibit C: I have yet to be contacted by this court house unless I owe money.

Lets be real. Why does Ottawa even need a court house? Fire everyone except the judges and just use written correspondence. It would be the same thing as the system in place but would save your tax payers a great deal of stress, trouble, and resources.