Michigan Law created what is callled the 'Tenure Commission' that serves "to promote the integrity of the judicial process and preserve public confidence in the courts." The Tenure Commision accepts greivances against Judges, Magistrates, and Referees. They consider each greivance, basing their decision on whether or not there is a violation of either (1) Code of Judicial Conduct, or (2) Rules of Professional Conduct.
If the Tenure Commission accepts the grievance, they investigate to determine if action is needed. If they conclude that action is needed, they make a recommendation to the Michigan Supreme Court for what action they believe is needed.
The Tenure Commission has the authority, through the Michigan Supreme Court backing there recommendation, to have these judges, magistrates, and referee's fired and fined, as an example. They require your greivance to have a notary with your signature as part of the swearing you're telling the truth, so it needs to be done on paper and mailed to them to be accepted.
If you do decide you need to file a greivance with the Tenure Commission, make sure you find the specific violations based on the criteria and confirm that it is a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct, or Rules of Professional Conduct. You need to make sure that you have as much proof as possible to confirm what you are saying. If they approve your complaint for investigation, they may need to contact you for further information. So you will need to make sure they have up to date contact info and expect the possibility of them following up with you requesting additional info as part of the process of them making a determination.
Ionia and Montcalm County share certain resources such as there Judges, and for some purposes can be considered together.
Newly brought into this position to replace previous director/ referee Wierckz that had a longer history with the Ionia FOC. Ms Shermak previously worked as a "free woman victim lawyer" for legal aid. She has started off worse then she left there, already showing unjustified bias, emotional thinking instead of logic, countradicting the facts, laws, and policies she is supposed to be adhering to, and showing unjustified bias in place of supporting her bahaviors and conclusions with truth and fact.
If you have to deal with her, attempt to appeal to an emotionally thinking person rather then the normal logical style of person that would be put in this position. Be very clear in what you are saying and be prepared to prove everything you need to so it will be on the court record already for your appeal (called "de novo review") after her FOC recommendation is made. Keep in mind that she will likely act with bias against men as this behavior has been seen in her since she started her FOC ref position. This is likley a result of her time with legal aid, representing women victims against men that were there abusers, free of charge to the female victim being represented.
If she rules against logic and fact as she is known to, remember to request your transcripts and a de novo hearing within the time limits required. You will have to pay for the transcripts but you will need to request these to have your case record/ court order corrected. Otherwise her recommendation will become the permanent order.
If her behavior is unprofessional, ie biased, keep in mind that the Tenure Commision is generally the way to have referees held accountable. After already demonstrating unprofessional behavior and recommendations based on bias not fact, antagonsitic behavior, etc, she will need to be removed from office anyway. If she screws up your case once, she will likely do it again, until she is removed from office. This will be an ongoing problem until it is taken care of.
Judge Schafer is currently the Chief Judge and you would think he would be responsible for making sure people like Ref Shermak do not work for the courts. We can give him the bnenfit of the doubt for now, maybe: he has already been quoted as saying that he felt she did ok when her behavior and recommendation was beyond questionable. Apparently more people will need to tell him she is not ok before he admits it himself, or have someone else more willing to deal with Ionia County corruption take care of it instead. Details on this will be shared soon.
Feel free to visit the Official Ionia County/ Govt Website for further information specific to Ionia County, such as current government workers, names we did not list, etc.