A new statewide survey of nearly 300 Michigan family-law practitioners paints an urgent and damning picture of a court system failing the state’s most vulnerable residents — and the findings are not confined to metro Detroit.
The report, “Michigan’s Family Court Crisis,” released recently by Stronger Courts for Michigan Families, draws on responses from judges, referees, legal aid attorneys, and private practitioners who work inside the state’s family court system every day. Their accounts are unsparing: delays are endemic, judges are routinely assigned to family dockets without relevant training or experience, and the consequences — in the worst cases — are irreversible.
“The system is not failing in pockets. It is failing in patterns, and the patterns repeat from Wayne County to Marquette, from Berrien to the Keweenaw,” the report states.
Key findings include:
• Delay is the defining experience. 74% of respondents identified delays in hearings or case resolution as a significant problem — the most-cited issue in the survey by a wide margin. 53% cited high case backlogs.
• The bench is structurally mismatched to the work. 58% of practitioners report judges being assigned to family law without family-law experience. 60% report inconsistent rulings or lack of judicial continuity. Family court is routinely described as the docket judges treat as a stepping stone — and leave as soon as a civil seat opens.
• The dysfunction is statewide. 62% of respondents describe these problems as widespread across Michigan. Respondents named 66 distinct counties as having significant family-court problems, including counties across the entire Upper Peninsula.
• Children are paying the price. The survey documents a Lake County child who attended two different schools in the first two weeks of the school year because a judge had not issued an order in six months; a Livingston County PPO denied by a judge without family-law training, followed within a month by the murder of a woman and her children; and a Grand Traverse PPO denial that preceded a kidnapping and rape now documented in a nationally distributed documentary series.
• Practitioners support reform — decisively. Among those who took a position, 157 said courts with specialized family-law structures produce better outcomes versus 35 who disagreed — a 4.5-to-1 margin in favor of a dedicated family-court bench.
• The report also documents a Friend of the Court system described as a chokepoint rather than a relief valve, racial bias and disparate treatment of low-income and pro per litigants, and a “forum lottery” in which the same fact pattern produces dramatically different outcomes depending on the county.
• Notably, 43% of the survey’s 290 respondents — 126 practitioners — volunteered to speak further or provide testimony, an unusually high follow-up rate that the report describes as itself a signal of the depth of concern inside the profession.
The report calls on the Michigan Legislature to act on three fronts: establish a dedicated, non-rotating family bench with minimum experience requirements in every county; reform Friend of the Court accountability and training standards statewide; and prioritize rural and northern Michigan, where the consequences of the current system are most severe and least visible.
“The reform model exists. It works. The question before the Legislature is whether every Michigan family deserves access to it, or only those who happen to live in the right county,” the report concludes.
Currently, members of the Michigan House of Representatives is considering HB 5445, which addresses the changes called for in the report. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. Supporters urge swift legislative action to ensure Michigan’s family courts operate with the consistency, efficiency, and fairness that families deserve.
The “Michigan’s Family Court Crisis” report is available online at www.mifamilycourt.com.
The report, “Michigan’s Family Court Crisis,” released recently by Stronger Courts for Michigan Families, draws on responses from judges, referees, legal aid attorneys, and private practitioners who work inside the state’s family court system every day. Their accounts are unsparing: delays are endemic, judges are routinely assigned to family dockets without relevant training or experience, and the consequences — in the worst cases — are irreversible.
“The system is not failing in pockets. It is failing in patterns, and the patterns repeat from Wayne County to Marquette, from Berrien to the Keweenaw,” the report states.
Key findings include:
• Delay is the defining experience. 74% of respondents identified delays in hearings or case resolution as a significant problem — the most-cited issue in the survey by a wide margin. 53% cited high case backlogs.
• The bench is structurally mismatched to the work. 58% of practitioners report judges being assigned to family law without family-law experience. 60% report inconsistent rulings or lack of judicial continuity. Family court is routinely described as the docket judges treat as a stepping stone — and leave as soon as a civil seat opens.
• The dysfunction is statewide. 62% of respondents describe these problems as widespread across Michigan. Respondents named 66 distinct counties as having significant family-court problems, including counties across the entire Upper Peninsula.
• Children are paying the price. The survey documents a Lake County child who attended two different schools in the first two weeks of the school year because a judge had not issued an order in six months; a Livingston County PPO denied by a judge without family-law training, followed within a month by the murder of a woman and her children; and a Grand Traverse PPO denial that preceded a kidnapping and rape now documented in a nationally distributed documentary series.
• Practitioners support reform — decisively. Among those who took a position, 157 said courts with specialized family-law structures produce better outcomes versus 35 who disagreed — a 4.5-to-1 margin in favor of a dedicated family-court bench.
• The report also documents a Friend of the Court system described as a chokepoint rather than a relief valve, racial bias and disparate treatment of low-income and pro per litigants, and a “forum lottery” in which the same fact pattern produces dramatically different outcomes depending on the county.
• Notably, 43% of the survey’s 290 respondents — 126 practitioners — volunteered to speak further or provide testimony, an unusually high follow-up rate that the report describes as itself a signal of the depth of concern inside the profession.
The report calls on the Michigan Legislature to act on three fronts: establish a dedicated, non-rotating family bench with minimum experience requirements in every county; reform Friend of the Court accountability and training standards statewide; and prioritize rural and northern Michigan, where the consequences of the current system are most severe and least visible.
“The reform model exists. It works. The question before the Legislature is whether every Michigan family deserves access to it, or only those who happen to live in the right county,” the report concludes.
Currently, members of the Michigan House of Representatives is considering HB 5445, which addresses the changes called for in the report. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration. Supporters urge swift legislative action to ensure Michigan’s family courts operate with the consistency, efficiency, and fairness that families deserve.
The “Michigan’s Family Court Crisis” report is available online at www.mifamilycourt.com.
