If one removes racist and anti-Semitic comments and calls for violence, whether satirical, protected speech, or cyberstalking, it become easy to see that the Family Court Circus made some excellent points. Here is an article taken from two from the blog, sanitized of offensive terms, edited for style.
One of the reasons divorce proceedings in Connecticut are protracted is that family law attorneys exploit family savings to maintain lifestyles they couldn’t otherwise afford.
An actual divorce involves about 90 minutes of actual work, much of which is typing.
The root of Connecticut’s family court dilemma is the family section of the Bar Association, a breeding ground for subpar and ethically challenged lawyers.
Many family law attorneys operate independently or share office space with another lawyer to cut expenses. Some launch a website and work from home due to a lack of clients that would require professional office space.
Attorney Maria F. McKeon, who leads the McKeon Law Group, LLC. This so-called ‘group’ consists solely of Maria, with listed offices in Hartford, New Haven, Fairfield, New London, Middletown, Tolland, and Windham.
Maria reportedly lacks any physical office locations. She conducts her work from her kitchen in Amston, targeting parents entangled in divorce proceedings. Her tactics involve depleting family savings, prolonging litigation, creating chaos, extracting money, and sometimes abruptly quitting without delivering a finalized divorce.
McKeon took on a mother in a straightforward no-fault divorce case, amassing a staggering $145,000 billings within a year. She extracted $85,000 in cash from the mother and an additional $60,000 in billing before abruptly quitting without completing the case.
It required the collaboration of the father’s attorney, Lisa Knopf, which sparked the legal battle spanning 738 days of a ‘no fault’ confrontation and another 450 days of post-judgment litigation
With hundreds of entries on the docket, the lawyers converted the Campos family into a lucrative opportunity.
Attorneys McKeon, Knopf, and the man they got the court to appoint to look after “the best interests” of the two teenage children, the GAL Kevin Finch Esq., made hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The ensemble also included attorneys James Hardy, Dante Gallucci, Josephine Miller, custody evaluator Jessica Biren-Caverly, and clinical social worker Lisa Kerin — all billing by the hour.
The money spent with the lawyers and experts is more than what the two children will require for their college education.
Court records alleged anger issues and destructive behavior against the father, including smashing the mother’s laptops and attacking her. The son was injured trying to shield his mother from his knife-wielding dad.
This meant the money lay with getting custody to the father – because that was what the children did not want, and the mother would fight to protect him.
The divorce was complete. Sadly, the daughter reached age 18 and was out of the case, wanting nothing to do with her dad. There was nothing the lawyers collectively could do to bill the parents anything more for the girl.
But the son was only 15. He also chose not to visit his father.
The attorneys and the GAL knew the billings would end if the 15 year old stopped visiting the father and they got some pliable judge to agree.
Porcine evaluator
They tapped the custody evaluator, the expert on parental alienation, Dr. Jessica Biren-Caverly, who determined the mother alienated the son and he needed to visit his father.
To justify advising a 15 year old to visit a dad who previously stabbed him with a knife, Biren-Caverly determined the father never intended to harm his son, he was only trying to stab the mother when the boy got in the way.
The GAL, the lawyers, and the experts weighed in. This case could stay alive. More billings.
They went to pliant Judge Elizabeth Stewart, who ordered the mother to order the child to visit his father, initiating a continuous financial gain for the lawyers.
The son refused to visit his father. Everyone knew that would happen.
The lawyers switched judges, a common practice, to pump up billings and shift the shifty rulings, to spread them out and make it seems like judicial consensus.
The mother explained to the new judge that her son is physically larger than her; she could not force him to go. He refused to visit his dad.
Judge Anthony Truglia knew where the bread was buttered – for everyone in the courtroom who mattered – the lawyers, the experts and the parent who was paying – in this case the father.
He would be prosecution, judge and jury. If her son did not visit his father he said he would send her to jail without a jury trial.
The mother said, “The judge coerced me into a corner…. My son acquiesced out of fear for my well-being, but he won’t be able to endure this much longer.”
She mentioned that during one coerced visit with the father, the police were summoned. It could have turned violent.
“He can’t stand his father,” she said, “He’s struggling to maintain composure because he doesn’t want to start a fight.”
But a fight is what the lawyers want.
The mother had stopped paying Mckeon. The father was willing to continue; paying his attorney Knopf and she marshaled the custody evaluator Biren-Caverly and the GAL Finch – all billing by the hour – to advise the court that it is in the best interest of the child to see his father, and arrest the mother if she doesn’t comply.
She had to spend more on legal fees.
Ten months after Mckeon’s departure, the mother was entangled in the Bar Association’s arbitration, facing a demand for Mckeon’s remaining $60,000.
And the beat goes on.
