MI - Computer snafu strikes Friend of the Court

Tuesday, January 9, 2001

By Ken Palmer

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A computer problem has shut down basic tasks at the Genesee County Friend of the Court, meaning child support payments could be delayed for thousands of parents.

County officials said the problem started during some year-end processing tasks on Friday. They were unable to predict when it would be fixed.

"We're manually reloading the stuff we lost, said Friend of the Court Jennie E. Barkey. "We're filing in the file room, but that's about it.

Other county offices are not affected by the problem, said Joe Heimbach, the county's data processing director.

It's the first time the FOC has encountered the problem. Officials aren't sure what caused it, although Heimbach said it would not have been caused by a virus.

Barkey warned that child support payments will be delayed unless the problem is fixed soon. General Motors electronically sends about $600,000 in support payments on Wednesdays, she said.

"If we get it fixed, it will be just a couple days processing that we missed, and we'll send out GM on time," she said.

http://fl.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20010109fdfoccompu.frm

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), January 09, 2001