Parenting Time Coordinator

John R. Foley serves as Parenting Time Coordinator (sometimes called a parenting coordinator) in Wayne County and other southeast Michigan family courts. He draws on more than forty years of family law practice and decades as a mediator.

What a Parenting Time Coordinator Does

A custody judgment or parenting time order sets the framework, but it cannot anticipate every school pickup, holiday swap, summer camp, or doctor’s appointment. In high-conflict families, each of those questions can become a motion, a hearing, and months of waiting. A Parenting Time Coordinator is a neutral appointed by the court to handle those disputes as they come up, quickly and at far less cost than litigation.

The coordinator acts as an officer of the court in a quasi-judicial role. The coordinator’s first job is always to help the parents reach their own agreement. When they cannot, the coordinator decides the issue by written recommendation, which the parents follow unless one of them takes it to the judge.

How the Appointment Is Made

The coordinator is appointed by court order, usually a consent order the parents and their attorneys sign, together with a written agreement that defines the coordinator’s authority, the procedures, and the fees. A typical appointment runs for twelve months and can be extended by agreement or by the court. Once the order is entered, counsel provide the coordinator with the custody and parenting time orders, the related pleadings, and any evaluations, and the work begins.

Issues the Coordinator Can Address

The appointment agreement lists the coordinator’s authority. Under the agreements John uses, it typically includes:

• How and how often the parents communicate with each other, and with the children, about parenting time.
• Exchanges of the children: times, places, transportation, and who may be present.
• Carrying out and clarifying the holiday and vacation schedules in the judgment.
• Daily routines, discipline, school attendance, homework, and religious upbringing.
• Extracurricular activities, lessons, sports and camps, and how their cost is shared.
• Health care, including recommending medical or mental health evaluation and counseling for the children or the parents, and parenting classes.
• Requested adjustments to the parenting time schedule.
• The role of new partners, relatives, and others during parenting time.
• Any other parenting issue both parents agree in writing to submit.

A coordinator does not change custody itself. Major changes, such as a change of custody or a move out of the area, remain for the judge.

How a Dispute Is Resolved

• Either parent can start the process by contacting the coordinator about a dispute.
• The coordinator gathers information. John may meet with the parents together or separately, by Zoom, phone, or in person, and may speak with the children, their therapists and doctors, and their teachers. The parents sign releases so he can obtain school, medical, and counseling records. Sessions are informal, and the rules of evidence do not apply.
• Mediation comes first. John works with the parents to reach an agreement. Most disputes end here.
• If there is no agreement, a written recommendation. John issues a written recommendation deciding the issue and serves it on both parents and their attorneys.
• Emergencies. When a decision cannot wait, the coordinator can give an oral emergency recommendation, followed promptly by a written one.

Objecting to a Recommendation

A recommendation takes effect under the terms of the appointment, and the parents are expected to follow it. A parent who disagrees can file a written objection with the court within 21 days after the recommendation is served, with copies to the other parent and the coordinator. The judge then reviews the issue fresh (de novo) and makes the final decision. If no one objects in time, the recommendation is entered as a court order. Every parent keeps the right to have the judge decide a disputed issue.

Confidentiality and Privilege

The coordinator process is not confidential in the way mediation is. Written recommendations can be shared with the court, the Friend of the Court, evaluators, and counsel, and the coordinator may be called to testify. Conversations with the coordinator are not privileged, and the coordinator is not a therapist for either parent. Information about suspected child abuse or neglect is reported as Michigan law requires.

Fees

The coordinator bills hourly, usually against a retainer deposited by both parents. Fees are ordinarily shared, but the coordinator may reallocate them, up to the full amount, to a parent whose conduct makes the work necessary or who misuses the process. That provision alone tends to reduce the number of disputes brought.

Requesting an Appointment

Attorneys who want to propose John as Parenting Time Coordinator, or parents who want to ask about it, can contact the firm. The firm will check for conflicts and send the proposed consent order and appointment agreement to both counsel.