this is a reform board, if we are going to reform something, should we not take on the monster that is the real problem? We can pass all of the laws we want, we can expend all of the resources we have and wind up with more laws that are not going to make any difference to anyone if the judges are continually allowed to ignore any law they so please to ignore.
helping people to prepare paperwork for their immediate needs is great, explaining the law and rules for specific issues is a big help to many but what are we accomplishing to slay the beast?
Anyone that has been in this mess long enough should be able to identify the target. the new commers just can not understand how messed up our courts are and how they are only getting worse.
I belong to many boards, I see the same complaints over and over, How can a judge rule against either parent when the facts prove the one parent is clearly the more responsible parent. every law on the books says we can expect fair and equal treatment,do we get it no! Why because it is not the laws it is the judge sitting on the bench in these courts screwing things up left and right with no accountability.
Why should any respectable lawyer be intimidated by any judge, if that lawyer is practicing law according to the law. How does a judge command undue power over the practice and earning ability of an honest lawyer, by judicial discretion and abuse of power and they get away with it every day.
No new law is going to force a judge to do anything they do not want to do in the first place, Why because we have lost control of the courts as individual citizens and as a nation. Real reform commands a different approach from the top down not nit picking at a case here and there for the most minor of small improvements.
The problem is the structure of the entire system and anyone that can not see this is asleep. Family courts have to be reformed on a national scale, forced to comply with federal standards. this point is made very clear when the fedral congress had to replace the UCCJRA with the UCCJEA because the UCCJRA was failing to fix the problems it was intended to resolve. Now the UCCJEA is proving to be worthless. Why because neither of these to pieces of legislation fixed the problem at the route. No way to force the individual courts to comply.
I have a solution and everyone is affraid to even talk about it. I have nothing to loose and everything to gain and until every one realizes they are actually in the same boat we will never make any meaningful progress.
Take the money out of the process and take the power out of the court. all accomplished by a national reform effort not state by state, county by county or court by court.
Keep chipping away at the system and you will find lots of chips but no real change and no real progress with lots of wasted effort and lots of wasted resources and the children will continue to be the loosers, one generation after another in a system that has already wasted two generations. these same problems have been in existance for the last 40 years, How many of you really understand this? there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Some people just have to learn to think out side the box and make an effort to find a different way. you are all accepting the power of the court, power maybe it should not have.
Man was not built to fly but we do. We will never step foot on the moon but we did. Why were we able to accomplish these feats, because some one was thinking out side the box. A new plan is needed because the current one is broken and not working and there has to be a better way.
Small minds think about small problems and come up with small ineffective solutions. If we are going to call ourselves reformers then we need to really reform something otherwise we should be called patchers because that is all we are accomplishing is a patche here and a patch there. There comes a time when all you have is a patched up mess and that is where family courts are now.