50 thoughts on “Would you say that family court is user-friendly? Poll #21”
Neutrality is key. When so-called “Mediators,” GALs, Special Masters, Therapists, Judges, “free help facilitators” and even the Clerks select their own facts and collude to retaliate, obstruct, dis-favor pro-pers, and favor preferred litigants… NO! This is not a friendly and child-focused system. Especially in Shasta County CA where my oldest daughter was abducted over 3 years ago from her single, brown dad: No abuse, no neglect, no review of my properly filed evidences and witnesses. While I was able to eventually get the “judge” disrobed by the Chief Justice, that disgraceful order stands, and he has immunity for malpractice under the color of law – and still, no contact allowed for me and my youngest daughter. User friendly? No. althepal55 on YouTube
Hi Alan, I was hacked, lost emails. Everyone should be on Weightier Matter. An atty is suing most of the San Diego Courthouse, including judges. I am about to lose custody of my 14 yo to an abusive, drug addicted, depressed-on-meds father obsessed with guns and me. Scary. If anyone in Butte County wants to join forces, media, then pool money to sue, we can. My email is r n 4 neat@gmail.com. Vickie Van Scyoc
I’ve heard of others in Butte. I need to sue my state. Who is the attorney in s.d?
I’ve heard of others in Butte. I need to sue my state. Who is the attorney in s.d?
I can’t even respond to the question.
I guess when a kid isn’t being hurt, it’s one thing…..mine is. And I need help.
Courts disrespect anyone not a lawyer
I’ll state the obvious that family court judges, most anyhow, DO NOT KNOW what their job is but worse … there is no one to instruct them correctly. So guess who fills the gap .. the ever so helpful ABA! Find it strange the ABA publishes a judges guide? Shouldn’t such a guide come from the government – perhaps the state Supreme Court? Of course the ABA encourages judges to play social engineer, child psych, lawyer, etc. http://apps.americanbar.org/legalservices/probono/childcustody/judges_guide.pdf This is a far cry from what was intended by state constitutions. Most require Judicial officers to take oath to uphold the constitution and only the constitution (nothing about enforcing state statue). Worse, they are the ONLY branch of our ‘3-headed’ government structure who is required and equipped to do so. Meaning, our law-making Legislative branch has no obligation to uphold the constitution and, sad to say, most of them do not comprehend the constitution. The Executive branch is no different. These “democratically” elected officials cater to the populous who like the heinous unconstitutional laws that destroy our lives. ABA encourages Judges to focus on the state statute and they quickly loose sight of their job which, quite simply, is solely to PROTECT THE RIGHTS of the people from invasion of the democratically elected legislature and executives. We the people conferred the Right to be Governed but in a far more limited manner than being ‘administered’. Luckily the US Supreme Court, IMHO, “get’s it” but their wisdom does not flow readily to the local courts. An excellent book on the topic: NOT In the Child’s Best Interest by Ron B Palmer
Most places if you do not get along with the people where you are at you should be able to leave, it not like most people ask to be there in family court. Most people are brought into to family court system under false pretense at any cost that has been my experience. Why should the staff be rude to you and you have to tolerate such nonsense.
Why would they want a user friendly system ,when they over charge for everything write papers no one will look it or even read and judges who don’t care about anything.
1) I was told by a co parenting professional that works closely with family courts that, ” women are the nurturers and men are the providers and it has been that way since cave man times”.
2) I was told by my court appointed mediator that she did not believe that I had never cheated on my wife. When I asked her why did not believe me she said ” #1 because you are a man and #2 because you are a Fireman”.
3) through my personal experience family court has no justice and it’s only concern is money. What are your assets and how can the family law attorneys make you bleed.
There are three examples to start ….
It should not be hard to understand at this point, look at the government and see the none support the President receives, when he is trying to make thing better for the working class and poor people, the ones who opposes him, the issue do not directly even affect them. If you see that insanity at the top do you really expect anything different. Or does one care just like a tree has roots so does disease thinking.
After being forced out of my home and away from my boys, the judge left me with very little money to survive on. I needed legal help, so I waited in line to see the lawyer of the day. He pulled up my tax return that the court had on record, then told me that he could not answer my question. No way is family court user friendly.
The courts in Lancaster PA werent user friendly with me. All they did was tell me to call six different numbers. Then never gave me no answers, an told me to call one of the numbers I allready called. They musta been user friendly towards my EX. They left her beat my sons an walk away. As per the pics in my FB Albums. Hell of a bruise on my sons leg an it matches that gun butt in the other pic. The System Sucks!!!
Jeff,
If you know your sons are being abused you don’t go through the court. Go to the child protective agency in your county. They are mandated to investigate claims of abuse, and if they find any evidence at all, or circumstances that reflect a probability that your claim has merit, they will go into a full investigation. If you don’t have any way to prove it, talk to people who know your ex or who know your children. You can’t allow this to go on, and expecting the court to fix it is completely unrealistic. Talk to your children. Get evidence. Get witnesses. Get going.
Linda,
I’ve endured CPS dealings in two different states. Despite published policies and procedures, and intake guidelines, it appears that ultimately any “investigation” is left to the discretion of very human and subjective investigators. There is no recourse from their errors or omissions.
Overall, everyone from the clerks to the judges are judgmental & mean spirited.
Dennis,
I absolutely agree with you. The Hemet, Calif. court I had the unpleasant experience with had absolutely NO “Customer Service” skills, all the way from the Judge down to the clerks.
And, this is a Multi-Billion dollar business???? How do they do it with such POOR Customer Service???? It is us divorcees that a funding this Corrupt Corporation isn’t it?
Maybe, if they hired me to be their “Marketing Consultant” they might be a Multi-trillion dollar business…I wouldn’t take the job if you paid me. This Business needs to SHUT down, and soon, before it bankrupts hundred of thousands more broken families….SO SAD and PATHETIC:((((((
In Butte County they protect and cover for those they like, my ex owns a BMW repair shop that 2 judges and many attys use and am sure talk about. Judge Keithley recently rejected atty fees, even tho he makes 3 times what I do, ignoring Elkins case, and the prior judge told me what to redo to get it. She said I was not forthcoming, i.e., a lier. The child attys are the worst. Now we have Michael Bury who doesn’t know the laws and lies to protect the father. He said there was a law that in supreme court you can’t do drug screening unless both agree and usually one doesn’t and that evidence is ignored after 5 years! I said then he wouldn’t mind letting his da. spend a weekend alone with a molester that showed no proof he was molesting for 5 years. Crazy. Would love to sue like San Diego is doing and the atty will help any atty found to do it.
If I was a Judge, if one party requested a drug test and the other party objected, the party who objected to the drug test would lose custody immediately.
I battled for several years to bring our Pediatrician to court and my wife and her lawyer fought against that, and then finally our Judge saw what was going on.
My attorney from San Diego, James Pasto, is much better. As a matter of fact, he has been disbarred for 3 years and is then on Probation for 5 years. The year I hired him, 2003, he frauded a poor confused, alcoholic woman out of her inheritance of $500,000. After fighting him and she was not going to get her money, 2 days later, she committed suicide….Yes, that was my Family Law Attorney……He didn’t have representation for me on an ex parte…so, as you can guess…I got my ass kicked and my ex’s attorney got me thrown out of my house that night, a TRO(temporary restraining order) that went on for 3 years for no reason. By the time I figured out this dirty attorney’s tactics, I had already lost over $500k.
I tried to arbitrate with him after he said I still owed him over $13k, and the designated “Arbitrator” was just another Family Law Attorney, who took a 2 hour course.
Now, do you think this Family Law Attorney/Arbitrator was going to let me win???? Hell no.
After my Family Law attorney and the Attorney who was suppose to Show up for me, Christine Greer, didn’t show up for me….lied like a bitch. I even had a witness to what actually happened, but, the “So-Called” Arbitrator, (whom I paid $1,000 just to arbitrate) didn’t want to listen to my honest version of what happened and could only say, “Well, you hired this attorney, and didn’t fire him, so why should I allow you not to pay him his attorney fees. After his ruling…I lost….I told Mr. James Pasto I was not ever going to pay him, he then proceeded to take me to Civil Court and got an court order for me to pay him. After I still didn’t pay him…he put a lien on my house. I told him I would never pay him. If I did, it would be after he died. Well, I had my house foreclosed on me and I filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and he will never receive anymore money from me as long as he lives….Greedy Pig.
It’s a good ole boy system – no its not user friendly because you should never ever forget that you are an outsider.
User friendly and Family Court does not fit together in the present day system. Complicate it enough so that someone who does not know the system will stumble, and for someone who knows the system can then take advantage of the cloud surrounding the process.
Family court was uncivilized, judge treated people as if I was stupid and inept, many other complained of the same treatment, treated like cattle, going through the process without concern for children or rights. The court system, including attorneys, should be embarrassed about the lack of professionalism and common courtesy.
It depends on what you call a user. If the user is one of the people who profits from the miseries of others, it’s very user friendly. If the intention is for the average person on the street who gets trapped into a maze of litigation, no way is it user friendly.
Not user friendly…..Oklahoma family courts cost me 18K plus 12K, alienation from my daughter in 2004 and are still raping me to the tune of another 60K because my previous attorney is suing me now in 2014 because I refused to pay anymore for her not doing her job in a simple divorce (not filing journals, memorialization of hearings, charging for things that did not happen and retaliation for filing a bar complaint).BTW, my ex wife’s attorney only charged her 7K I countersued for malpractice and fraud. . The civil court allowed my former attorney and her team of 3 attorneys to run roughshod over me for 3 days by sealing the bar complaint I filed as evidence ,disqualifying my witnesses, prohibiting court documents to be introduced as evidence. Basically the jury dismissed my complaints because I had no witnesses or allowed to present solid, relevant evidence and awarded this former attorney the farm. I am appealing.
Frank. it would be interesting to see the jury charge for your trial have you filed for Indigency. at the Court house
Nor Friendly, not fair just a bunch of blood sucking creeps.
The system here is either mom-friendly or friendly toward a particular lawyer and friends. Unfortunately the injustice goes all the way through the supreme court without correction. After 8 some years I can say definitively it is not user or kid friendly.
After spending $400,000 over two years to get a standard financial divorce settlement and standard child “possessuon” times….the family courts in Harris couunty in Houston, Texas are NOT USER FREIENDLY. The divorce gave me 40% of the community property; I lost the house and its contents; I got only 34% of the time with my girls; I pay 100% of the girls health insurance and dental insurance’ I say not user friendly, and I have zero vote over decisions over the health and schooling choices for the girls, unless you like being emotionally and financially RAPED.
I’m sorry about what happened to you
It is big business like depicted in the documentary. No one has to be accountable to anyone while those with unethical power, bully parents and rape them financially. Custody cases are full or people who no little or nothing about child development, healthy parent/child attachments. Although bullying is damaging, they fail to recognize the relational bullying happening to children in over half of all custody cases. While kids are being emotionally damaged, often for life, lawyers and judges continue to rake in the money. These unethical individuals refuse to look at timelines, evidence when emotional abuse of children begins, meaning children being pressured to reject a once loved parent. A parent, who can not handle rejection themselves, uses their children as tools of revenge no matter what the cost to the children. Many experts in child development have deemed the behavior emotional child abuse, but unethical court employees refuse to take note. There is no BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILDREN. Nice try. God will be the final judge!
No. My divorce is out of state and the only guidance I got from the out of state court house is to mail my to be ex wife documents and she’ll submit them. What sense does that make?
Come to find out, days before the divorce is to be final she made amendments and put my initials to em’.
It’s a uphill losing battle and my only two options feel like 1. lay down or or 2. ignore the system.
Navigating the family court process here in Connecticut is cumbersome, laborious, unnecessarily burdensome, completely inefficient, ridiculously user-unfriendly and just nasty. I wish Apple or Microsoft could come in and make some apps for it to make it run like a 21st century world-leading government branch should run.
Hi Marisa. Agreed. Except do you really think we have a 21st century, world-leading country anymore?
Lol! No, are you joking?!
Sort of 🙂
User friendly? NO. Besides the standard two year update in which the court sends letters out to the parties involved regarding requesting changes in payment, I’ve received nothing from the court. I was getting letters informing me of arreages but for the past year and a half nothing. The court does not communicate on a regular basis but wants to charge administration fees. For what? Suprisingly, a year ago I filed a complaint with the court concerning the lowering of my child support payments which was recommended by the FOC. I previously had written to the court by email and grievence to no avail, but this time the court did respond. The court indicated that since time had relapsed I would have to file a motion to have the order to go into effect. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY FOR THE COURT and attorneys.
Family court is corrupt!!! They number our children and once in their corrupt system they place a price tag on them and sale our children to the highest bidder, the most abusive and manipulative. The family courts place these children I. Harms way and fail to grant due process of law!
The judges need to be held accountable for their ignorance of the law and need to be held accountable every time they distort the law in any way shape or form.
All judges take the below oath of office swearing to uphold the U.S. Constitution- – Title 28 Section 453
Each justice or judge of the United States shall take the following oath or affirmation before performing the duties of his office: “I, XXX XXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as XXX under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”
Any judge who does not comply with his oath to the Constitution of the United States wars against that Constitution and engages in acts in violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.That judge is engaged in acts of treason.
I suggest you search for and download a document called Formulating population polices for the US by Rebecca J Cook, and then weep. You will understand the purpose of these courts much better and why they operate the way they do,
Friendly ? My God, how is it possible that something like that exists in civilized country? It has not much in common with justice, in most cases it is a tool for people who wants to commit a crime in the name of law. Matrimonial laws are in conflict with the human nature. People who get upset with all the reasons to do so, are in jails right now. People are dying literally, because of judges decisions. I knew personally one men, who was robbed from everything he had, become homeless and died because of exhaustion and hypothermia.
For Christians – there is one Bible portion of John 2: 14-16. I hope some judge will read that part. I would like to know the verdict for Jesus, for his actions in the Temple?
Everybody talk about those laws, everybody knows how unfair they are, but when one starts to experience it, then really starts to understand how demonic those laws may become. Some just can not take it , they start to do their own justice, innocent children are dying because daddy lost his mind and shot down all family and himself in the end. To drastic – sorry, but truth.
It is not only time to change it , but it is also time to judge the judges and lawyers in some cases as well.
I knew Family Court was not “user friendly” the first day I walked through its doors. It is, in theory, supposed to work with people to dissolve the complex bonds of marriage, and allow them to get on with their lives. But many divorces include children, most of whom are quite young. And do think there’s an on-site child care facility? Of course not – family court doesn’t care about anybody, especially not about children.
Is this question for real?
The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained throughout all its narrow turnings. Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme, and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think it. Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at their expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.
(Charles Dickens – “Bleak House”)
Family court is an absolute corrupted sham! Beginning with the name “family” heck! The only thing families find is destruction, pain and anguish and all in the name of money. These judges, lawyers, therapists and all those involved in this evil entity run freely destroying children/parent bonds and financially raping families to the bone all for their own capital gain – DISGUSTING! Then they twist laws around and say, “this is a court of equity” so that they get away with violating your Constitutional rights.
Learn about Social Security and “title IV D” how they give incentives to family court judges to go after the high earner in divorce cases all for their own monetary gain, read up on Carole
Rhodes of Michigan former FOC officer turned whistle blower, read her book, it will shed more light on this corrupted world and make you puke at the same time. A complete overhaul of the system is desperately needed! May God hear our cries…
Family court is anti-family. It is like we have changed the name of human services to inhuman services.
Courts are NOT “consumer friendly” but they never really were meant to be. They are friendly to lawyers in the way a football field is friendly to professional athletes. With regard to divorce, the far more important thing is to get the process OUT OF THE COURTS totally – rather than trying to adjust or modify the courts to better handle divorce. Courts are about “Law and Contracts” – Marriage is about “Love and Propagation of the species” —— those two subject groups are very very different and require different perspective and thinking.
I am not so naive to think that we will suddenly stop using the courts for divorce (simple because divorce = money and courts = money). I DO believe the courts need to become more “user friendly” for the citizen from the simple point of being able to better achieve meaningful. The courts don’t have a soul any more — they are just a performance theater where we pay for the entertainment.
The county clerk was friendly. I went to get a copy of all my motions and such. He got them to me fairly quickly, and even called my cell phone when they were ready. The copies cost me $25. If I a lawyer gets them for you, the cost will be more like $300.
Other than that hell no. I gained temporary custody of my daughter, then I wanted to make it final. I waited over 6 months to get a date, only to be told, six months later, that it had been cancelled because the new Judge administrator was now requiring a mediation first before a final hearing.
So to get a mediation, that was another 4 months. Then it was another six months for a temporary hearing, but was cancelled. So another whatever months until we got to the final. By this time my daughter was almost 18, and there was no real reason for it anymore.
So from the time I got temporary custody to an actual final hearing, it was 2 years. Mostly caused by the family court changing rules, and cancelling hearings.
Get this, for my ex-wife, they recalculate child support six months in advance. She had to do nothing, no motions or nothing. They just said, hey, in six months child support will change, so lets recalculate it now for her.
What an f*&^ing joke.
Family court is a long shallow money trench where pimps and thieves run free, and families are bankrupted and torn apart.
(Paraphrasing Hunter S. Thompson here).
Sir: With all due respect, pimps and prostitutes are defamatory names for sex workers?. Many are licensed and do a honest trade that does NOT exploit or hurt little children on purpose. Le Judges, lawyers, custody finders-makers, child advocates, family law-legislation makers, and others in your divorce area behavior and acts c’est more closer to rapeistos, pedophilors, child-slavers, porngrapors .. No?
The 20th Judicial Civil Court Lee County, Fort Meyers Fla. it’s virtually a waste of time to go it alone. But my divorced cost me over $500k of wealth. No infidelity, no abuse, one daughter in college at the time. Marital assets, one nice home 3 vehicles, a little over $100k Ira, savings, stocks. The judge stretch this out for four years. I was enslaved to pay $1,500 per month in alimony, and he ordered me to buy her out of the marital home $35,000 more than it was appraised. The corrupt thing is her attorney (Liz) became an elected family court judge and still represented her, because she wasn’t sworn in. Represented my ex til the end. And these two most important conditions were never discussed during trial. All done behind closed doors to me and my attorney. I had requested a rehearing with the Judge on 19 counts of Judicial error. Rehearing cost me over $ 15,000. I thought he had me confused with someone else. My wife worked. At the Catholic School, summers off but she worked. I am now going before the court for the fourth time to stop or reduce my alimony. I would like this organization to follow and document the way I get treated. I now have a Judge, Magistrate, and her former Attorney throwing money wrenches in everything I try to do, while I take home $94.00- $200.00 per week working at least 60 hours a week. The last time took the Magistrate 9 months to come up with an answer. That was 3onths after I was put on unemployment in 2010. I made more on unemployment than I can working, paying alimony. In 7 years I have paid her $60,000. In a normal thinking person that should be enough rehab. But no, she still takes the summer’s off and she and Hermes boyfriend go on vacations! I’m sixty years old now. I have a right to survive
The americaninnovated one-up response to Dante’s Inferno: the Family Court System where each state can showcase the worst angels of its denizen’s natures- free from Federal constitutional oversight (“Domestic Exception” rule that precludes federal courts from reviewing family law cases), incentivized by federal matching funds (through Title IV, part D) for each sacred parent-child relationship that the system can forcibly pervert and irretrievably sever, and rich, extended time benefits flowing from the loot ripped from the parents to every rapacious pirate that mans this ship and to every cut-throat side-kick in the divorce industry that symbiotically draws sustenance from and lobbies to perpetuate the system.
While a child mourns the loss of its parent to the divorce system in solitude, the System purports to uphold the “Best Interests of this Child” by handing the parent to the mercenaries to rid the parent of all it possesses, simultaneously creating a web-of-falsehoods for the general public’s consumption (“dead-beat parent”, “overdue child-support payments”, “abusive”, “domestic violence” etc. etc.) and prohibiting the bleeding and tortured parent from explaining to its kid the nightmare being visited upon the family to serve the “Better Interests of the Corrupt System”
Neutrality is key. When so-called “Mediators,” GALs, Special Masters, Therapists, Judges, “free help facilitators” and even the Clerks select their own facts and collude to retaliate, obstruct, dis-favor pro-pers, and favor preferred litigants… NO! This is not a friendly and child-focused system. Especially in Shasta County CA where my oldest daughter was abducted over 3 years ago from her single, brown dad: No abuse, no neglect, no review of my properly filed evidences and witnesses. While I was able to eventually get the “judge” disrobed by the Chief Justice, that disgraceful order stands, and he has immunity for malpractice under the color of law – and still, no contact allowed for me and my youngest daughter. User friendly? No. althepal55 on YouTube
Hi Alan, I was hacked, lost emails. Everyone should be on Weightier Matter. An atty is suing most of the San Diego Courthouse, including judges. I am about to lose custody of my 14 yo to an abusive, drug addicted, depressed-on-meds father obsessed with guns and me. Scary. If anyone in Butte County wants to join forces, media, then pool money to sue, we can. My email is r n 4 neat@gmail.com. Vickie Van Scyoc
I’ve heard of others in Butte. I need to sue my state. Who is the attorney in s.d?
I’ve heard of others in Butte. I need to sue my state. Who is the attorney in s.d?
I can’t even respond to the question.
I guess when a kid isn’t being hurt, it’s one thing…..mine is. And I need help.
Courts disrespect anyone not a lawyer
I’ll state the obvious that family court judges, most anyhow, DO NOT KNOW what their job is but worse … there is no one to instruct them correctly. So guess who fills the gap .. the ever so helpful ABA! Find it strange the ABA publishes a judges guide? Shouldn’t such a guide come from the government – perhaps the state Supreme Court? Of course the ABA encourages judges to play social engineer, child psych, lawyer, etc. http://apps.americanbar.org/legalservices/probono/childcustody/judges_guide.pdf This is a far cry from what was intended by state constitutions. Most require Judicial officers to take oath to uphold the constitution and only the constitution (nothing about enforcing state statue). Worse, they are the ONLY branch of our ‘3-headed’ government structure who is required and equipped to do so. Meaning, our law-making Legislative branch has no obligation to uphold the constitution and, sad to say, most of them do not comprehend the constitution. The Executive branch is no different. These “democratically” elected officials cater to the populous who like the heinous unconstitutional laws that destroy our lives. ABA encourages Judges to focus on the state statute and they quickly loose sight of their job which, quite simply, is solely to PROTECT THE RIGHTS of the people from invasion of the democratically elected legislature and executives. We the people conferred the Right to be Governed but in a far more limited manner than being ‘administered’. Luckily the US Supreme Court, IMHO, “get’s it” but their wisdom does not flow readily to the local courts. An excellent book on the topic: NOT In the Child’s Best Interest by Ron B Palmer
Most places if you do not get along with the people where you are at you should be able to leave, it not like most people ask to be there in family court. Most people are brought into to family court system under false pretense at any cost that has been my experience. Why should the staff be rude to you and you have to tolerate such nonsense.
Why would they want a user friendly system ,when they over charge for everything write papers no one will look it or even read and judges who don’t care about anything.
1) I was told by a co parenting professional that works closely with family courts that, ” women are the nurturers and men are the providers and it has been that way since cave man times”.
2) I was told by my court appointed mediator that she did not believe that I had never cheated on my wife. When I asked her why did not believe me she said ” #1 because you are a man and #2 because you are a Fireman”.
3) through my personal experience family court has no justice and it’s only concern is money. What are your assets and how can the family law attorneys make you bleed.
There are three examples to start ….
It should not be hard to understand at this point, look at the government and see the none support the President receives, when he is trying to make thing better for the working class and poor people, the ones who opposes him, the issue do not directly even affect them. If you see that insanity at the top do you really expect anything different. Or does one care just like a tree has roots so does disease thinking.
After being forced out of my home and away from my boys, the judge left me with very little money to survive on. I needed legal help, so I waited in line to see the lawyer of the day. He pulled up my tax return that the court had on record, then told me that he could not answer my question. No way is family court user friendly.
The courts in Lancaster PA werent user friendly with me. All they did was tell me to call six different numbers. Then never gave me no answers, an told me to call one of the numbers I allready called. They musta been user friendly towards my EX. They left her beat my sons an walk away. As per the pics in my FB Albums. Hell of a bruise on my sons leg an it matches that gun butt in the other pic. The System Sucks!!!
Jeff,
If you know your sons are being abused you don’t go through the court. Go to the child protective agency in your county. They are mandated to investigate claims of abuse, and if they find any evidence at all, or circumstances that reflect a probability that your claim has merit, they will go into a full investigation. If you don’t have any way to prove it, talk to people who know your ex or who know your children. You can’t allow this to go on, and expecting the court to fix it is completely unrealistic. Talk to your children. Get evidence. Get witnesses. Get going.
Linda,
I’ve endured CPS dealings in two different states. Despite published policies and procedures, and intake guidelines, it appears that ultimately any “investigation” is left to the discretion of very human and subjective investigators. There is no recourse from their errors or omissions.
Overall, everyone from the clerks to the judges are judgmental & mean spirited.
Dennis,
I absolutely agree with you. The Hemet, Calif. court I had the unpleasant experience with had absolutely NO “Customer Service” skills, all the way from the Judge down to the clerks.
And, this is a Multi-Billion dollar business???? How do they do it with such POOR Customer Service???? It is us divorcees that a funding this Corrupt Corporation isn’t it?
Maybe, if they hired me to be their “Marketing Consultant” they might be a Multi-trillion dollar business…I wouldn’t take the job if you paid me. This Business needs to SHUT down, and soon, before it bankrupts hundred of thousands more broken families….SO SAD and PATHETIC:((((((
In Butte County they protect and cover for those they like, my ex owns a BMW repair shop that 2 judges and many attys use and am sure talk about. Judge Keithley recently rejected atty fees, even tho he makes 3 times what I do, ignoring Elkins case, and the prior judge told me what to redo to get it. She said I was not forthcoming, i.e., a lier. The child attys are the worst. Now we have Michael Bury who doesn’t know the laws and lies to protect the father. He said there was a law that in supreme court you can’t do drug screening unless both agree and usually one doesn’t and that evidence is ignored after 5 years! I said then he wouldn’t mind letting his da. spend a weekend alone with a molester that showed no proof he was molesting for 5 years. Crazy. Would love to sue like San Diego is doing and the atty will help any atty found to do it.
If I was a Judge, if one party requested a drug test and the other party objected, the party who objected to the drug test would lose custody immediately.
I battled for several years to bring our Pediatrician to court and my wife and her lawyer fought against that, and then finally our Judge saw what was going on.
Here is a web site which will help most of you: http://www.shatterdmen.com
Vickie,
My attorney from San Diego, James Pasto, is much better. As a matter of fact, he has been disbarred for 3 years and is then on Probation for 5 years. The year I hired him, 2003, he frauded a poor confused, alcoholic woman out of her inheritance of $500,000. After fighting him and she was not going to get her money, 2 days later, she committed suicide….Yes, that was my Family Law Attorney……He didn’t have representation for me on an ex parte…so, as you can guess…I got my ass kicked and my ex’s attorney got me thrown out of my house that night, a TRO(temporary restraining order) that went on for 3 years for no reason. By the time I figured out this dirty attorney’s tactics, I had already lost over $500k.
I tried to arbitrate with him after he said I still owed him over $13k, and the designated “Arbitrator” was just another Family Law Attorney, who took a 2 hour course.
Now, do you think this Family Law Attorney/Arbitrator was going to let me win???? Hell no.
After my Family Law attorney and the Attorney who was suppose to Show up for me, Christine Greer, didn’t show up for me….lied like a bitch. I even had a witness to what actually happened, but, the “So-Called” Arbitrator, (whom I paid $1,000 just to arbitrate) didn’t want to listen to my honest version of what happened and could only say, “Well, you hired this attorney, and didn’t fire him, so why should I allow you not to pay him his attorney fees. After his ruling…I lost….I told Mr. James Pasto I was not ever going to pay him, he then proceeded to take me to Civil Court and got an court order for me to pay him. After I still didn’t pay him…he put a lien on my house. I told him I would never pay him. If I did, it would be after he died. Well, I had my house foreclosed on me and I filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and he will never receive anymore money from me as long as he lives….Greedy Pig.
It’s a good ole boy system – no its not user friendly because you should never ever forget that you are an outsider.
User friendly and Family Court does not fit together in the present day system. Complicate it enough so that someone who does not know the system will stumble, and for someone who knows the system can then take advantage of the cloud surrounding the process.
Family court was uncivilized, judge treated people as if I was stupid and inept, many other complained of the same treatment, treated like cattle, going through the process without concern for children or rights. The court system, including attorneys, should be embarrassed about the lack of professionalism and common courtesy.
It depends on what you call a user. If the user is one of the people who profits from the miseries of others, it’s very user friendly. If the intention is for the average person on the street who gets trapped into a maze of litigation, no way is it user friendly.
Not user friendly…..Oklahoma family courts cost me 18K plus 12K, alienation from my daughter in 2004 and are still raping me to the tune of another 60K because my previous attorney is suing me now in 2014 because I refused to pay anymore for her not doing her job in a simple divorce (not filing journals, memorialization of hearings, charging for things that did not happen and retaliation for filing a bar complaint).BTW, my ex wife’s attorney only charged her 7K I countersued for malpractice and fraud. . The civil court allowed my former attorney and her team of 3 attorneys to run roughshod over me for 3 days by sealing the bar complaint I filed as evidence ,disqualifying my witnesses, prohibiting court documents to be introduced as evidence. Basically the jury dismissed my complaints because I had no witnesses or allowed to present solid, relevant evidence and awarded this former attorney the farm. I am appealing.
Frank. it would be interesting to see the jury charge for your trial have you filed for Indigency. at the Court house
Nor Friendly, not fair just a bunch of blood sucking creeps.
The system here is either mom-friendly or friendly toward a particular lawyer and friends. Unfortunately the injustice goes all the way through the supreme court without correction. After 8 some years I can say definitively it is not user or kid friendly.
After spending $400,000 over two years to get a standard financial divorce settlement and standard child “possessuon” times….the family courts in Harris couunty in Houston, Texas are NOT USER FREIENDLY. The divorce gave me 40% of the community property; I lost the house and its contents; I got only 34% of the time with my girls; I pay 100% of the girls health insurance and dental insurance’ I say not user friendly, and I have zero vote over decisions over the health and schooling choices for the girls, unless you like being emotionally and financially RAPED.
I’m sorry about what happened to you
It is big business like depicted in the documentary. No one has to be accountable to anyone while those with unethical power, bully parents and rape them financially. Custody cases are full or people who no little or nothing about child development, healthy parent/child attachments. Although bullying is damaging, they fail to recognize the relational bullying happening to children in over half of all custody cases. While kids are being emotionally damaged, often for life, lawyers and judges continue to rake in the money. These unethical individuals refuse to look at timelines, evidence when emotional abuse of children begins, meaning children being pressured to reject a once loved parent. A parent, who can not handle rejection themselves, uses their children as tools of revenge no matter what the cost to the children. Many experts in child development have deemed the behavior emotional child abuse, but unethical court employees refuse to take note. There is no BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILDREN. Nice try. God will be the final judge!
No. My divorce is out of state and the only guidance I got from the out of state court house is to mail my to be ex wife documents and she’ll submit them. What sense does that make?
Come to find out, days before the divorce is to be final she made amendments and put my initials to em’.
It’s a uphill losing battle and my only two options feel like 1. lay down or or 2. ignore the system.
Navigating the family court process here in Connecticut is cumbersome, laborious, unnecessarily burdensome, completely inefficient, ridiculously user-unfriendly and just nasty. I wish Apple or Microsoft could come in and make some apps for it to make it run like a 21st century world-leading government branch should run.
Hi Marisa. Agreed. Except do you really think we have a 21st century, world-leading country anymore?
Lol! No, are you joking?!
Sort of 🙂
User friendly? NO. Besides the standard two year update in which the court sends letters out to the parties involved regarding requesting changes in payment, I’ve received nothing from the court. I was getting letters informing me of arreages but for the past year and a half nothing. The court does not communicate on a regular basis but wants to charge administration fees. For what? Suprisingly, a year ago I filed a complaint with the court concerning the lowering of my child support payments which was recommended by the FOC. I previously had written to the court by email and grievence to no avail, but this time the court did respond. The court indicated that since time had relapsed I would have to file a motion to have the order to go into effect. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY FOR THE COURT and attorneys.
Family court is corrupt!!! They number our children and once in their corrupt system they place a price tag on them and sale our children to the highest bidder, the most abusive and manipulative. The family courts place these children I. Harms way and fail to grant due process of law!
The judges need to be held accountable for their ignorance of the law and need to be held accountable every time they distort the law in any way shape or form.
All judges take the below oath of office swearing to uphold the U.S. Constitution- – Title 28 Section 453
Each justice or judge of the United States shall take the following oath or affirmation before performing the duties of his office: “I, XXX XXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as XXX under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”
Any judge who does not comply with his oath to the Constitution of the United States wars against that Constitution and engages in acts in violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.That judge is engaged in acts of treason.
I suggest you search for and download a document called Formulating population polices for the US by Rebecca J Cook, and then weep. You will understand the purpose of these courts much better and why they operate the way they do,
Friendly ? My God, how is it possible that something like that exists in civilized country? It has not much in common with justice, in most cases it is a tool for people who wants to commit a crime in the name of law. Matrimonial laws are in conflict with the human nature. People who get upset with all the reasons to do so, are in jails right now. People are dying literally, because of judges decisions. I knew personally one men, who was robbed from everything he had, become homeless and died because of exhaustion and hypothermia.
For Christians – there is one Bible portion of John 2: 14-16. I hope some judge will read that part. I would like to know the verdict for Jesus, for his actions in the Temple?
Everybody talk about those laws, everybody knows how unfair they are, but when one starts to experience it, then really starts to understand how demonic those laws may become. Some just can not take it , they start to do their own justice, innocent children are dying because daddy lost his mind and shot down all family and himself in the end. To drastic – sorry, but truth.
It is not only time to change it , but it is also time to judge the judges and lawyers in some cases as well.
I knew Family Court was not “user friendly” the first day I walked through its doors. It is, in theory, supposed to work with people to dissolve the complex bonds of marriage, and allow them to get on with their lives. But many divorces include children, most of whom are quite young. And do think there’s an on-site child care facility? Of course not – family court doesn’t care about anybody, especially not about children.
Is this question for real?
The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained throughout all its narrow turnings. Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme, and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think it. Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at their expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.
(Charles Dickens – “Bleak House”)
Family court is an absolute corrupted sham! Beginning with the name “family” heck! The only thing families find is destruction, pain and anguish and all in the name of money. These judges, lawyers, therapists and all those involved in this evil entity run freely destroying children/parent bonds and financially raping families to the bone all for their own capital gain – DISGUSTING! Then they twist laws around and say, “this is a court of equity” so that they get away with violating your Constitutional rights.
Learn about Social Security and “title IV D” how they give incentives to family court judges to go after the high earner in divorce cases all for their own monetary gain, read up on Carole
Rhodes of Michigan former FOC officer turned whistle blower, read her book, it will shed more light on this corrupted world and make you puke at the same time. A complete overhaul of the system is desperately needed! May God hear our cries…
Family court is anti-family. It is like we have changed the name of human services to inhuman services.
Courts are NOT “consumer friendly” but they never really were meant to be. They are friendly to lawyers in the way a football field is friendly to professional athletes. With regard to divorce, the far more important thing is to get the process OUT OF THE COURTS totally – rather than trying to adjust or modify the courts to better handle divorce. Courts are about “Law and Contracts” – Marriage is about “Love and Propagation of the species” —— those two subject groups are very very different and require different perspective and thinking.
I am not so naive to think that we will suddenly stop using the courts for divorce (simple because divorce = money and courts = money). I DO believe the courts need to become more “user friendly” for the citizen from the simple point of being able to better achieve meaningful. The courts don’t have a soul any more — they are just a performance theater where we pay for the entertainment.
The county clerk was friendly. I went to get a copy of all my motions and such. He got them to me fairly quickly, and even called my cell phone when they were ready. The copies cost me $25. If I a lawyer gets them for you, the cost will be more like $300.
Other than that hell no. I gained temporary custody of my daughter, then I wanted to make it final. I waited over 6 months to get a date, only to be told, six months later, that it had been cancelled because the new Judge administrator was now requiring a mediation first before a final hearing.
So to get a mediation, that was another 4 months. Then it was another six months for a temporary hearing, but was cancelled. So another whatever months until we got to the final. By this time my daughter was almost 18, and there was no real reason for it anymore.
So from the time I got temporary custody to an actual final hearing, it was 2 years. Mostly caused by the family court changing rules, and cancelling hearings.
Get this, for my ex-wife, they recalculate child support six months in advance. She had to do nothing, no motions or nothing. They just said, hey, in six months child support will change, so lets recalculate it now for her.
What an f*&^ing joke.
Family court is a long shallow money trench where pimps and thieves run free, and families are bankrupted and torn apart.
(Paraphrasing Hunter S. Thompson here).
Sir: With all due respect, pimps and prostitutes are defamatory names for sex workers?. Many are licensed and do a honest trade that does NOT exploit or hurt little children on purpose. Le Judges, lawyers, custody finders-makers, child advocates, family law-legislation makers, and others in your divorce area behavior and acts c’est more closer to rapeistos, pedophilors, child-slavers, porngrapors .. No?
The 20th Judicial Civil Court Lee County, Fort Meyers Fla. it’s virtually a waste of time to go it alone. But my divorced cost me over $500k of wealth. No infidelity, no abuse, one daughter in college at the time. Marital assets, one nice home 3 vehicles, a little over $100k Ira, savings, stocks. The judge stretch this out for four years. I was enslaved to pay $1,500 per month in alimony, and he ordered me to buy her out of the marital home $35,000 more than it was appraised. The corrupt thing is her attorney (Liz) became an elected family court judge and still represented her, because she wasn’t sworn in. Represented my ex til the end. And these two most important conditions were never discussed during trial. All done behind closed doors to me and my attorney. I had requested a rehearing with the Judge on 19 counts of Judicial error. Rehearing cost me over $ 15,000. I thought he had me confused with someone else. My wife worked. At the Catholic School, summers off but she worked. I am now going before the court for the fourth time to stop or reduce my alimony. I would like this organization to follow and document the way I get treated. I now have a Judge, Magistrate, and her former Attorney throwing money wrenches in everything I try to do, while I take home $94.00- $200.00 per week working at least 60 hours a week. The last time took the Magistrate 9 months to come up with an answer. That was 3onths after I was put on unemployment in 2010. I made more on unemployment than I can working, paying alimony. In 7 years I have paid her $60,000. In a normal thinking person that should be enough rehab. But no, she still takes the summer’s off and she and Hermes boyfriend go on vacations! I’m sixty years old now. I have a right to survive
The americaninnovated one-up response to Dante’s Inferno: the Family Court System where each state can showcase the worst angels of its denizen’s natures- free from Federal constitutional oversight (“Domestic Exception” rule that precludes federal courts from reviewing family law cases), incentivized by federal matching funds (through Title IV, part D) for each sacred parent-child relationship that the system can forcibly pervert and irretrievably sever, and rich, extended time benefits flowing from the loot ripped from the parents to every rapacious pirate that mans this ship and to every cut-throat side-kick in the divorce industry that symbiotically draws sustenance from and lobbies to perpetuate the system.
While a child mourns the loss of its parent to the divorce system in solitude, the System purports to uphold the “Best Interests of this Child” by handing the parent to the mercenaries to rid the parent of all it possesses, simultaneously creating a web-of-falsehoods for the general public’s consumption (“dead-beat parent”, “overdue child-support payments”, “abusive”, “domestic violence” etc. etc.) and prohibiting the bleeding and tortured parent from explaining to its kid the nightmare being visited upon the family to serve the “Better Interests of the Corrupt System”