Moms Need Help in California Family Court System

I'd like to take a brief aside from POTUS politics and look at an issue in California related to families, domestic violence prevention, and social justice. As a recent article in Capitol Weekly put it, the issue is about improving oversight and accountability in the process of how child custody disputes are handled, i.e. some good moms (and dads) are getting screwed by the process, and there's something we can do about it.

Please read the Capitol Weekly article for more details.

Also check out the two YouTube video clips:  PART ONE & PART TWO

The audit request is slated to be heard at an early August 2008 JLAC Committee hearing in Sacramento. While Speaker Pro Tem Lieber is busy gathering legislative co-sponsors for their request, they are recruiting as many organizational supporters as they can to generate support. They have been coordinating meetings with the CA Commission on the Status of Women, California NOW, the CA Partnership to End Domestic Violence and the Legislative Women's Caucus, all of whom have helped as they finalize the JLAC request. They still need more support from all organizations committed to racial justice and gender equity; protecting women and children; demanding clean, accountable government; and/or protecting civil and human rights.

(For more information, contact Kathleen Russell Consulting.)

Comments

[cynematic]

Sarah, it's really stomach-turning to think the family courts have become "a racket" and the interests of women and their children are far down the list of concerns.

This quote from the Capitol Weekly article leaped out at me: "Others tell of expensive "co-parenting" session [sic] with a therapist, in which a woman must pay to sit in a room with the man who has beaten her or her children, following the rules in hopes of getting their children back." Ugh. We already know divorce is usually impoverishing for women and children; the scenario I just cited sounds like an extension of abuse, not the end of it.

That this is happening in Marin, a wealthy county north of San Francisco, illustrates why and how the well-off shouldn't be able to manipulate the justice system for their advantage and convenience.

[Lary Holland]

Domestic violence and false allegations aside, what needs to be done with family court begins with true equality and taking the fight out of the process. For every exception to fairness, you will find someone trying to fit themselves into the mold to get the most bang for their buck. People are actually dying nationwide as a result of the adversarial nature of family courts. Women are hiring hits on their former spouses, men are killing their ex-spouses and then killing themselves. Dissolution of a relationship/marriage is impoverishing for both participants, not just women, although it makes good headlines. In fact, following the atrocious child support enforcement system you will find that there is tremendous financial incentives for birth and runs. This has a serious negative impact on society. We are at a time when the focus for the family courts aren't helping anyone but themselves. They get paid and reimbursed for negative results. Poor people are actually left behind by the current system.

Over participation continues to be a major problem in the nation's child support enforcement program. I have highlighted important sections regarding participation numbers, collections, and undistributed child support. Net Undistributed Collections appears to make up the equivalent of about 50% of the total collections of means tested needy families. These are nationwide numbers. You will see that between former and never assistance, actual needy families are a super minority of this social welfare program.

Adding eligibility requirements into the nation's Title IV-D/Child Support Enforcement Program will benefit needy families and will also constitute a significant savings to the taxpayers at both the federal and state levels. Removing affluent feuding families from the program will also benefit children of those divorce and child custody cases, by emphasizing on the parent-child relationship rather than encouraging bickering and fighting over who is going to receive a check and for how much.

Actual Federal Expenditures Nationwide: $5,593,864,242.00 (Billions)

Estimated State Expenditures Nationwide: $1,845,975,199.86 (Billions)

Taxpayer Expense, not including other social programs and costs of incarcerations is over 7 BILLION DOLLARS!

Collections for ACTUAL MEANS TESTED NEEDY FAMILIES: $946,283,222.00 (Millions) which is less than the State's expenditures on the program nationwide. Why is the federal government getting involved in these cases?

(please note there is no verification to determine if the money was distributed after collection.)

This program would be better off distributing money out of the budget directly to needy families and just get rid of the employees behind the Child Support Enforcement Agency. With Net Undistributed Collections totaling nearly 50% of the amount collected for needy families, one has to wonder how many needy families are indeed being helped by the program.

California in particular would benefit from paying money directly to single-parents rather than operating family court programs. Just to think, I am not even examining the number of mothers that are attacked by the Title IV-E foster care system. Times are tough, and they are going to get tougher as we turn to government to reward negative behaviors of adults.