Family Court Corruption — Lawyer and Judge Whistleblowers

Steven Krasner writes in Medium about why it is so hard for judges and lawmakers to follow their own professional rules of conduct.

Hurdles to address areas of professional misconduct are many times insurmountable — due to many of the entities designed to investigate having been proven to be ineffective and shielded by a cumbersome process that filters out legitimate cases of wrongdoing.

In 2015 the State of New York’s “Judicial Accountability” and “Ethics Enforcement Agencies” both received the failing grade of an “F”. Such findings offer little solace to any person, within the industry or outside of it, who would venture to report violations of professional or judicial misconduct on the part of lawyers and/or judges.

The most difficult thing for me is that although the law is good and clear and the lawyers rules of professional conduct are exceedingly well written and fair, both the law and the rules are simply ignored in family court. Not only is there no penalty when lawyers break the law and violate the rules, there are vast financial rewards to do so. The result is endemic corruption within family court.

Ultimately this creates a system where abuses of power and authority prosper at the expense of parents and children while sustaining an industry where profits appear to come before people.