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Fathers & Families Files Official Response to Elkins Task Force Recommendations on California Family Law Reforms
 "[Family law litigants should not be subjected to second-class status or deprived of access to justice. Litigants with other civil claims are entitled to resolve their disputes in the usual adversary trial proceeding governed by the rules of evidence established by statute. It is at least as important that courts employ fair proceedings when the stakes involve a judgment providing for custody in the best interest of a child and governing a parent's future involvement in his or her child's life..."--Elkins v.
Superior Court (2007)
Family law takes up more court calendar time than any other form of law in California, yet it receives the least amount of funding. Moreover, the public's trust and confidence in the family court system is lower than that of any other area of law the judicial system handles.
The Elkins Family Law Task Force is conducting a comprehensive review of family law proceedings and will recommend to the Judicial Council of California proposals that increase access to justice for all family law litigants. The Task Force grew out of the Elkins decision referenced above--to learn more, click here and go to page 3.
The Elkins Family Law Task Force recently issued its draft recommendations and Fathers & Families has submitted its official comments in response. Fathers & Families' comments, which were submitted by F & F Board Member Elizabeth Barton, PhD of the University of California at Irvine, are here.
Elkins' recommendations concern 21 family court issues, including: Enhancing Mechanisms to Handle Perjury; the Right to Present Live Testimony at Hearings; Contested Child Custody; Streamlining Family Law Forms and Procedures; and numerous others.
While Fathers & Families feels that many of the recommendations lack sufficient substantive detail, we believe that this will be addressed in the Task Force's final recommendations to the Judicial Council in Spring 2010. We are encouraged that the recommendations address transparency, due process, and education.
Many of the issues the Elkins Commission is taking up, such as conflict reduction, improving transparency, and protecting all parties' due process rights, were first addressed by Fathers & Families' legislative representative Michael Robinson during his work on AB 402 in 2006.
AB 402, a family law bill sponsored by then-California Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally, codified collaborative law practice into our family law codes. The current adversarial litigation process escalates conflict between divorcing parents instead of reducing it. Collaborative Law is a better option.
Among other provisions, AB 402 mandated a written statement of decision in all hearings or trials involving child custody. While this provision was already part of the Codes of Civil Procedure, it was not always being followed.
Robinson also attempted to add provisions for stronger enforcement of child custody orders by adding a new SECTION. 4. Family Code 3022 as part of AB 402. There was strong support for this provision from the California Judges Association and the Family Law Section of the State Bar. This provision was lost, but Fathers & Families is continuing to pursue this goal in Sacramento.
During the Work Group that AB 402 established (similar to the Elkins Task Force), Donna Hitchens, Presiding Judge of the San Francisco Family Court, commented:
You have no idea how many children's college educations I have seen unnecessarily wasted in my court room. This must be stopped.
Fathers & Families will continue its close monitoring of the Elkins Task Force and will be reporting on future developments.
The next event is the Task Force's two-day meeting February 1 & 2, 2010 in the Judicial Council Conference Center of the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco. Fathers & Families will have a representative speaking at this meeting, and will post its presentation on our E-Newsletter and on FathersandFamilies.org.
Fathers & Families is also working on 2010 legislation to codify some of the Elkins Task Force's most important recommendations--stay tuned for more details.
California law has an enormous impact on the laws of other states, as well as federal law. For example, many of the misguided domestic violence laws that have separated so many innocent fathers from their children emanated from the legislation passed in California in the mid-1990s in the wake of the OJ Simpson trial.
Many of those reading this participated in our successful 2005 campaign to pass California SB 1082, a military parents bill. Since then, 30 states have passed bills based in part on SB 1082.
Fathers & Families is the only family court reform organization with a fulltime lobbyist working inside the capitol of California or any other major state, and we probably have the only fulltime family court reform lobbyist in the country. This important work costs money--please support it by giving here.
The family court system has become so damaging and dysfunctional because for 40 years our opponents have passed, defeated, and amended legislation, while our side usually didn't show up. We're there now, and we're growing stronger--become a part of it by filling out our Volunteer Form here.
A Harvest of Sadness: Fathers & Families Is Flooded with Painful Letters in Support of Our Parental Alienation/DSM V Campaign
Parental Alienation cases are heartbreaking, and many of the numerous letters we've received as part of our new Campaign to Ask DSM to Include Parental Alienation in DSM V are sad examples.
Patty, a Fathers & Families' supporter and participant in our campaign, writes:
My parents ended their marriage when I was seven years old. My siblings and I saw our father every other Sunday, from Noon until 6 PM. I was told that at the age of 12 that I could decide if I wanted to continue these visits. It was made very clear to me what my decision was to be.
As the time approached, I decided to be brave and say that I still wanted to see my father. I never had the chance. My mother told me that because we had recently moved 10 miles away from where my father lived, he found it inconvenient to pick us up.
I was devastated. In spite of all of the horror stories I had heard from my Mother, he was kind to me…I saw him once when I was seventeen, and I felt so guilty that I put off making another visit. He died less than a year later.
I believe that this parental alienation has caused me a tremendous amount of unhappiness and confusion, and cost me a small fortune in therapy. I am now watching my brother and a friend of mine try to maintain relationships with their children, while their ex-wives undermine them daily.
I found out the truth from my mother just a few months ago—that she had told the Courts I had decided not to see my father. No one asked me. The peace this information has provided is astonishing to me….and I am 51 years old.
Patricia, a campaign supporter, writes:
My two elementary school age sons were taken across the country and brainwashed by their father and his girlfriend against me. After many court dates and years of this pain, I still have not seen them or heard from them at all.
Their father said he knew that this would hurt me. Parental Alienation is real—it is child abuse to our children. Our children deserve the love of both fit parents. It is wrong for any parent to put their very own children through this mental abuse.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of Parental Alienation, we want you to tell your story to the DSM-V Task Force.To do so, simply fill in our form by clicking here.
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 Fathers and Families is a family court reform organization with a comprehensive strategy, an impressive history of fundraising success, and the largest reach of any advocacy group of its kind:
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F & F Action Items--Have You Participated Yet? |
Action Item #1: Campaign to Ask DSM to Include Parental Alienation in Upcoming Edition
A group of 50 mental health experts from 10 countries are part of an effort to add Parental Alienation to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association's 'bible" of diagnoses.
Fathers & Families wants to ensure that the DSM-V Task Force is aware of the scope and severity of Parental Alienation. To this end, we are asking our members and supporters to write DSM. If you or someone you love has been the victim of Parental Alienation, we want you to tell your story to the DSM-V Task Force. To do so, simply fill in our form by clicking here.
To learn more about our campaign, click here.
Action Item #2: F & F Submitting Military Parent Cases to Secretary of Defense for Upcoming Report
Are you a military parent who has had family law problems? Fathers & Families is submitting military parents' cases to the Secretary of Defense—to be included, please fill out this form.
Fathers & Families' legislative representative Michael Robinson worked with Mark Sullivan of the American Bar Association on the National Defense Reauthorization Act (HR 2647), which was signed by President Obama in October, 2009. The bill mandates that the Secretary of Defense produce a report on child custody litigation involving members of the Armed Forces, as well as international intrafamilial abductions of servicemembers' children.
The Secretary of Defense will submit its report to the Armed Services Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives by the end of March. This problem affects both fathers and mothers who serve. If you are a military mother or father whose custody rights have been adversely affected due to your service, we want to make sure your story is included in the Secretary of Defense's report. To submit your story for inclusion, please click here.
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Mothers Who Share Parenting |
Mothers Who Share Parenting: 'My daughter has been the beneficiary'
'All in all, we all get along and my daughter has been the beneficiary of this. She is an extremely well adjusted young lady, does well in school, has great relationships with friends, and I can only attribute her adjustment to the relationships that she has been able to have with all the parents/grandparents in her life." Fathers & Families supporter Johanna is a mother who shares parenting. Below, she tells her story.
Co-parenting can work if both parents expect their child to have an equal relationship with both of them
By Johanna
My daughter from my second marriage is 15. Her father and I divorced when she was 7 and I became the residential parent. We split because we just had grown apart. We tried marriage counseling but it didn't help. In fact, my ex was very surprised when I actually filed for divorce and was crushed when I decided to move 45 minutes away with our daughter in order to be closer to my work, which had been a 1:25 commute for the prior seven years. My daughter and her father were always close and even though we lived in separate homes, I made sure that they had regular contact.
My daughter understood that her father and I both loved her and that her father missed her when she was with me. We got a cell phone so that she could call him for free and she did call him at least twice a day and sometimes more. At first it was with my reminders and then it became part of the fabric of her day. She looked forward to her weekend visits with him and though I didn't have to, we chose to meet halfway.
In addition, if he wanted her for a special event, I did not nickel and dime him on visitation. Instead I let him take her.
He was fully aware of how she was doing in school, invited and attended her concerts and open houses with me, and was always aware when she was ill or needed to go to the doctor or dentist. The first few years, he changed jobs and his income level dropped. I voluntarily lowered child support...
Read more here.
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