Act No. 150

Public Acts of 1999

Approved by the Governor

November 3, 1999

Filed with the Secretary of State

November 3, 1999

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 3, 1999

STATE OF MICHIGAN

90TH LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 1999

Introduced by Reps. Mead and Hart

ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 4817

AN ACT to amend 1982 PA 294, entitled "An act to revise and consolidate the laws relating to the friend of the court; to provide for the appointment or removal of the friend of the court; to create the office of the friend of the court; to establish the rights, powers, and duties of the friend of the court and the office of the friend of the court; to establish a state friend of the court bureau and to provide the powers and duties of the bureau; to prescribe powers and duties of the circuit court and of certain state and local agencies and officers; to establish friend of the court citizen advisory committees; to prescribe certain duties of certain employers and former employers; and to repeal acts and parts of acts," by amending sections 2a and 9 (MCL 552.502a and 552.509), section 2a as added by 1996 PA 366 and section 9 as amended by 1998 PA 63, and by adding section 9a.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 2a. As used in this act:

(a) "Medical assistance" means medical assistance as established under title XIX of the social security act, chapter 531, 49 Stat. 620, 42 U.S.C. 1396 to 1396f, 1396g-1 to 1396r-6, and 1396r-8 to 1396v.

(b) "Office" and "office of the friend of the court" mean an agency created in section 3.

(c) "Payer" means a person ordered by the circuit court to pay support.

(d) "Public assistance" means cash assistance provided under the social welfare act, 1939 PA 280, 400.1 to 400.119b.

(e) "Recipient of support" means the following:

(i) The spouse, if the support order orders spousal support.

(ii) The custodial parent or guardian, if the support order orders support for a minor child or a child who is 18 years of age or older.

(iii) The family independence agency, if support has been assigned to that department.

(f) "State advisory committee" means the committee established by the bureau under section 19.

(g) "State disbursement unit" or "SDU" means the entity established in section 6 of the office of child support act, 1971 PA 174, MCL 400.236.

(h) "Support" means all of the following:

(i) The payment of money for a child or a spouse ordered by the circuit court, whether the order is embodied in an interim, temporary, permanent, or modified order or judgment. Support may include payment of the expenses of medical, dental, and other health care, child care expenses, and educational expenses.

(ii) The payment of money ordered by the circuit court under the paternity act, 1956 PA 205, MCL 722.711 to 722.730, for the necessary expenses incurred by or for the mother in connection with her confinement, for other expenses in connection with the pregnancy of the mother, or for the repayment of genetic testing expenses.

(iii) A surcharge accumulated under section 3a of the support and parenting time enforcement act, MCL 552.603a.

(i) "Support and parenting time enforcement act" means 1982 PA 295, MCL 552.601 to 552.650.

(j) "Support order" means an order entered by the circuit court for the payment of support in a sum certain, whether in the form of a lump sum or a periodic payment.

Sec. 9. (1) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (2) and (3) or in the order or judgment, after a support order is entered in a domestic relations matter, the office shall receive each payment and service fee under the support order; shall, not less than once each month, record each support payment due, paid, and past due; and shall disburse each support payment to the recipient of support within 14 days after the office receives each payment or within the federally mandated time frame, whichever is shorter.

(2) An office shall receive support order and service fee payments, and shall disburse support, as required by subsection (1) until the state disbursement unit implements support and fee receipt and disbursement for the cases administered by that office. At the family independence agency's direction and in cooperation with the SDU, an office shall continue support and fee receipt and support disbursement to facilitate the transition of that responsibility to the SDU as directed in, and in accordance with the transition schedule developed as required by, the office of child support act, 1971 PA 174, MCL 400.231 to 400.239.

(3) After SDU support and fee receipt and disbursement is implemented in a circuit court circuit, the office for that court may accept a support payment made in cash or by cashier's check or money order. If the office accepts such a payment, the office shall transmit the payment to the SDU and shall inform the payer of the SDU's location and the requirement to make payments through the SDU.

(4) Promptly after the effective date of the amendatory act that added this subsection, each office shall establish and maintain the support order and account records necessary to enforce support orders and necessary to record obligations, support and fee receipt and disbursement, and related payments. Each office shall provide the SDU with access to those records and shall assist the SDU to resolve support and fee receipt and disbursement problems related to inadequate identifying information.

(5) The office shall provide annually to each party, without charge, 1 statement of account upon request. Additional statements of account shall be provided at a reasonable fee sufficient to pay for the cost of reproduction. Statements provided under this subsection are in addition to statements provided for administrative and judicial hearings.

(6) The office shall initiate and carry out proceedings to enforce an order entered in a domestic relations matter regarding custody, parenting time, health care coverage, or support in accordance with this act, the support and parenting time enforcement act, and supreme court rules.

(7) Upon request of a child support agency of another state, the office shall initiate and carry out certain proceedings to enforce support orders entered in the other state without the need to register the order as a domestic relations matter in this state. The order shall be enforced using automated administrative enforcement actions authorized under the support and parenting time enforcement act.

Sec. 9a. The department, the SDU, and each office of the friend of the court shall cooperate in the transition to the centralized receipt and disbursement of support and fees. An office of the friend of the court shall continue to receive and disburse support and fees through the transition, based on the schedule developed as required by section 6 of the office of child support act, 1971 PA 174, MCL 400.236, and modifications to that schedule as the department considers necessary.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless House Bill No. 4816 of the 90th Legislature is enacted into law.

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Secretary of the Senate.

Approved

Governor.