Editor’s Note: It is gratifying to hear from people researching the pirates and mercenaries in family court that they are finding Frank Report. Here is an example from author Lisa Kerr who went through the vicious system:
By Lisa Kerr
I stumbled upon your website today after searching for information about Linda Gottlieb, who is entrenched in the family court system as a “reunification camp” specialist. I hear stories from safe parents who are stripped of custody by her methods, ordered by the judges, of course.
I’m a victim of domestic violence and family court abuse. My abuser has won everything he requested. I don’t want to rehash my story, because it has been a dark two and a half years, and I’ve finally walked away from family court despite still being married. I’m actually fortunate enough to have 50/50 custody, unlike so many moms in my situation.
I refuse to spend another dollar on family law attorney fees or another hour missing work to defend myself and my children’s wellbeing from judicial officers who know nothing about children, their developmental stages and their health. Let alone biological connections between a mother and her children, especially in the post partum stages.
I’m a former member of Master’s Commission, which I used to write about as a fundamentalist Christian cult. My story appeared on Huffington Post TED Weekends at some point. The irony is that family court reunification camps are so similar to the troubled teen industry, which is similar to the group I was in, yet orchestrated by the law.
I’m now an award-winning children’s author and grant writer. I’m not sure what path to pursue in family court reformation. My goal is to build as much grant funding support for groups that are actively protecting children and safe parents and who are educating the community partners who serve them. It may take a lifetime.
Until then, I’m reading as much as possible from families like mine who have suffered at the hands of the sociopathic parent, their criminal defense attorney (I mean, family law attorney) and the judges they paid off. My own judge just won his election despite sending our then 8-month-old away for 4 overnights.
Thank you for sharing your work with us. Many of us are thrown into court without realizing the disturbing corruption we’ve walked into. Your advice here to stay out of family court is correct. There’s no winning. The system is intentionally broken.
Frank Report Reply:
Thank you, Lisa, for your excellent analysis. As for the reformation of the family court, I have a few suggestions. The first and most obvious is to stay out of hell.
Or adopt the adage that you must “abandon all hope once you enter family court.”
It is the injustice mill of last resort.
The reason is incredibly simple: There is no jury. Therefore, you have an all-powerful judge. As toothless as modern juries have become in the USA, they still have the power, on occasion, to “gum” the forces of injustice, even if they do not bite like old-time juries who knew their rights – and understood that a jury’s true purpose is to keep the government (including judges) in check – not just be a finder of fact.
You may well rue the day when in a fight over custody with your ex-spouse, you handed full and complete custody to a mercenary in black robes.
The New King of Your Life
In family court, you have a monarchy, with the judge being the king. A king will almost always do what is best for him, not his subjects. This is why most countries in the world have abolished monarchies. Most countries are headed for something similar—dictatorships or tyrannical governments. Family court is a form of tyrannical government.
With a jury, there is always the possibility that the judge cannot control the results, and this even-if-remote chance of an uncertain outcome keeps everyone more honest, if only because they are uncertain of the results (or said another way – lawyers cannot sell the results).
The family court dictum “the best interest of children” means simply “the best interest of the judge’s children” or the attorney’s children. I see the little kid in this picture saying, “When I grow up, I will be generous like Daddy and take people’s children away, so my attorney-friends can make more money pretending to fight, and then will support my reappointment.”
Judges Can Be Trusted?
Now, I hear many people say a jury cannot be trusted (but a judge can?).
Or the inconvenience would be too great to convene a jury for every family law case. But, of course, it could be done. I believe there would be far fewer trials if there were a jury in family court. People would settle because the richer parent could not be guaranteed a good result, because the judge and the attorney wink at each other.
Juries are funny; they might not care if an attorney is a judge’s friend. They might not give a damn that the wealthier parent wants custody because a guardian ad litem or custody evaluator has a bought and paid-for opinion that defies all common sense and is oblivious to the obvious needs of the children.
Family Court professionals will always tell you that they watch over the best interest of the child. In the photo above, the guardian ad litem, (with the red fox fur) looks after the “best interest of the children ” –seen in their coops for easier consumption.
Unpredictability Is Not Profitable, Though Its Pretense Is
The mere threat of it possibly happening – where the family law attorneys cannot predict (for themselves) the results of an outcome to extract the maximum money (usually the wealthier parent can buy custody), the $ystem will crash.
Family court professionals react to the statement, “The best interest of the child?”
Family court judges, without a jury to hinder their unbridled power, have zero accountability, and live a life of ease
Big Money
Today, family law attorneys, who are among the highest earners in the legal profession, manage most cases to maximize their billings. The cast of supporting actors – the GALs, the therapists, the custody evaluators, the custody or visitation supervisors, and the reunification therapists, and their indoctrination camps, are there to support the attorneys billing the most from parents in dispute.
So where does the judge come in?
The family court judge is the supreme personality, the Godhead figure in your children’s lives. From the moment you set foot in the insane family court. In short, you abandon your rights as a parent and handed them to a perfect stranger. Only an insane person (or someone with a huge economic advantage over the other parent) would seek justice in such a money-driven “court.”
Judge’s Are Usually Politicians and Just as Honest
The old quip that “a judge is merely a lawyer who knows the governor,” says it all. The judge is a lawyer, and he knows lawyers. If the judge is in family court, they know the system is based on profit first, children second.
A transfer of wealth from the family court litigants to the family court lawyers is the sole objective of the family court. The judges know this (and if they seek reappointment or reelection – or if they seek a nice cushy retirement, perhaps associated with some family law firm with a nice salary and little work on top of their pension), then they will support the system of “lawyers first” in family court.
The adage of family court is not “best interest of the child,” but the “best interest of the lawyer’s child.”
Never forget that. The judges and family law attorneys are in league for their best interests, and in many cases, they are friends.
This does not mean there are outright bribes. Though there may be. But there are many ways to bribe people into the conduct that is mutually beneficial. Things are cozy and congenial, and for that to occur there must be no surprises among the regular players in family court. Though the actors may act surprised. Even when attorneys on opposing sides seem to fight, it is often an act to rev up their clients and get them to pour more money into the fight “out of principle.”
The world of family court and its denizens have a motto of their own — “Let us prey.”
The point is that the regulars usually know the outcomes, and the game is prolonged only to maximize the bleeding of money from the disputants.
A jury would make it possible that the bad actors cannot always know the results. Sometimes, real contests for justice will occur, and with a jury, the judge is not all-powerful. It is what the founding fathers had in mind when they insisted that in all criminal cases and any civil cases where the matter in controversy is more than $20, then the citizen is entitles to a jury.
Kids, officially not being worth even $20 in family court, have been monetized into millions for the attorneys and their supporting characters.
Stay out of family court. Shut them down by making them obsolete. And if you go there, at least be aware that you should abandon all hope. For the moment you enter, you have given your children as hostages to a judge who most likely cares nothing about justice. The judge does not have to care about justice. They are king, and justice to a king is whatever he deigns.
Appeals in Family Court Is Baloney
There is no valid appeals process, because judges respect each other’s fiefdoms. For one king to question another king’s authority is to disturb every judge’s kingdom. And the jury-less family court is a kingdom all to itself. The appellate judges respect that. Sure on rare occasions they will grant an appeal. But that is not about justice. That is all about making it look like there is an appeal process so that their employment is secure. The appellate judges in family law appeals consider the judge’s feelings first and look for rare cases to grant an appeal to support the fiction that there is a valid appeal process.
Let me be blunt about appeals. They decide first what they are going to do and then they fashion their written decision based on their decision. If you think it is the opposite – where the judge studies the merits and then rules based on the law – you are naive.
The appellate judges for family law rule first, then find the law/reasoning to support their decision. They could just as easily have ruled the opposite way and found an appropriate reasoning/law. It is set up that way – to support the judges/lawyers.
Family Court Foolery
Come here to pay tribute or be abused. The seeker of justice, of fairness, will be punished (for stupidity), and the payer of tribute – no matter how psychopathic – will be rewarded. It is not about your kids – it is about the kids of the bad actors of family court. This is something the fool forgets.
Don’t be a fool. Stay away from family court, if you can. As bad as your spouse is, try to work out something. Be reasonable. Try to remember that you once may have loved this person and at least were close enough to create a child together.
If your spouse has more money, you will have as much chance in family court as in a casino for a favorable outcome.
