Family Court Is Worse Than You Think

Family court is far, far, worse than you think. This video from earlier this year does an excellent job explaining just how unbelievably corrupt family court has become. The reason? Money. Pure and simple. 

Like Trevor, I was totally shocked at how little facts, equality, and the law matters in family court. Indeed family court operates more akin to a criminal racket than a judicial process. 

One of the best lines is where the interviewer quotes judge Judy as stating family court is the "dumping grounds for morons and something else."

An Analogy

While I was out walking an analogy popped out of nowhere into my head.  

Imagine you are walking through Target with your kids when a person with a pistol robs you and beats up both you and your children. A security guard sees the whole thing and grabs the robber. But then, inexplicably, the security officer lets the person go. All of this is captured on the video surveillance system. Later, you contact the police and they say there is no evidence the robber did anything, especially because the security officer didn't do anything.  

Now image you go to court and a lawyer commits fraud upon the court agaisnt you and your children right in front of the judge. Openly. The judge, who states he personally knows the lawyer, does nothing. You file a case with the Lawyers Professional Respectability Board and they, ignoring the evidence, do nothing. 

It is hard to believe the first scenario could ever happen. 

The second scenario is exactly what happened to me. 

What Happens When You Try Get A Lawyer

Simone Biles and other Olympic level gymnasts are suing the FBI for $1 billion because the FBI did not follow up on credible evidence regarding sexual abuse by their former team doctor Larry Nassar.  (technically it is an administrative claim not a suit at this point) More power to them.

It is lucky Larry Nasser is a doctor not a lawyer. Good luck finding a lawyer to sue another lawyer for fraud committed in court no matter how good the evidence is against them. 

Here is where the Minnesota Lawyer Referral and Information Service run by the Minnesota Bar Association directed me when I asked for an attorney to file a civil suit against an attorney for fraud upon the court. 

The Lawyer’s Professional Responsibility Board (LPRB) oversees the lawyer’s professional responsibility office, which investigates complaints of alleged lawyer misconduct and prosecutes disciplinary actions against lawyers. To file a complaint call, 651-296-3952.

They also provide a tool to search lawyers licensed to practice in Minnesota to determine whether they have been publicly disciplined or placed on disability status.

Lawyer’s Professional Responsibility Board - http://lprb.mncourts.gov/Pages/Default.aspx

The LPRB is not a court and you do not file suits in it. You submit complaints which in the vast majority of cases are dismissed no matter what the evidence. They are essentially an organization whose function is to shield lawyers from the consequences of their crimes and violations of the Lawyers Rules of Professional Conduct. Their own statistics show they almost never discipline a lawyer and when they do it is almost always after the lawyer has been criminally charged. 

Corruption is so deep and so pervasive within the Minnesota legal system, crime has become an accepted practice. 

Isaac Wright

Some stories give me hope. Such as the story of Isaac Wright. After being wrongly convicted of being a drug kingpin and sentenced to life in prison, he tirelessly worked to overturn his conviction. After seven years he was exonerated, went to school to get his bachelor's and law degrees and eventually the police and judicial officials who had corruptly imprisoned him were themselves arrested.

The level of crime committed by lawyers, prosecutors and judges is amazingly high. Very few people are aware of this. The situation is similar to how law enforcement was viewed in the past when it came to crimes they committed. It used to be a cop could shoot an unarmed person in the back multiple time and no one would question them if they stated they acted because they were in fear of their life. Not so much anymore.Frome Wikipedia:

Hopefully our view of judicial officials will undergo a similar change. 

From Wikipedia:

Somerset County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell Jr., who had prosecuted Wright’s case, was identified as the orchestrator of the misconduct. Bissell directed police officers to falsify reports, while he personally dictated the false testimony of witnesses against Wright. Bissell further made secret deals with defense attorneys to have their clients lie to the jury that Wright was their drug boss and that they had pled guilty and were going to prison

Dugan pled guilty to official misconduct in order to escape prison. Wright’s trial judge, Michael Imbriani, who further concealed the secret deals through illegal sentencing schemes, was removed from the bench and incarcerated on unrelated theft charges. Bissell, after learning of Dugan’s confession on TV news, took flight with federal authorities in pursuit and later committed suicide when police tried to apprehend him. Wright’s remaining convictions were vacated, and after having spent over seven years in prison, he was immediately released and ultimately exonerated of all the charges.

Broken Justice - Change.org Petition

Mamadou Diakité has a Change.org petition to reduce crime and corruption in family court. As he states:

My goal here is to lobby the U.S. Congress for the introduction of:

1. a required continuing education addressing professional misconduct for Family Law attorneys.
2. an adequate case management system and ethical and technical training for attorneys and judges in Family Law. 
3. an easier way to report professional misconduct to the appropriate professional authority. 
4. an attorney earnings cap in certain cases of Domestic Relation. 

Diakité, asserts, "statistics show that more money passes through Family Court than any other Court and the more the attorney charges, people are willing to pay because they think money equals skills. Family Court in the USA is a highly profitable business.  The only winners in these courts are the attorneys.  This is not what it was intended to be.  Let's change it!

Unethical attorneys' conduct and bad Family Court judgements leave family broke, emotionally and financially damaged.  Please sign my petition to help me make my case and indict the system; and hopefully make legislative changes to help improve the legal process to better serve the families that utilize it."

Diakité has written a book, Broken Justice, about his experience with family court. I have yet to read the book, but my guess is Diakité's experiencing is similar to mine as well as so many others. 

Is Alimony An Outdated Concept?

Dhrishni Thakuria believes alimony is an outdated concept and I wholeheartedly agree with her. She has an interesting take on the historical reasons for alimony which I have not heard in quite the same way before: 

Alimony has an interesting history, one that was basically a somewhat derogatory assistance for women who were seen as the “weaker sex.” The law in the United States is based on the laws found in Ecclesiastical Courts in England. Since the husband was the sole owner of all marital property, and the wife depended upon him to provide for her sustenance, the English Ecclesiastical courts consistently ruled that the husband had the duty to provide for the wife after divorce as well. Otherwise she would become, “a burden of the people.” Heaven forbid there should be any burdensome women around!

Most people who desire alimony are just looking for free money. They effectively claim they are so weak and incompetent they are unable to support themselves so need their ex-spouse to do so. And keep in mind it is usually the person who receives alimony who asked for the divorce. (Of course there are cases where long-term alimony is deserved - for example, imagine a person who has a debilitating disease and cannot work at all along with a n ex-spouse who wasted marital assets due to gambling or such, but these cases are quite rare) 

Receiving alimony when you are perfectly capable of supporting yourself seems not only immoral but, given that 98%+ of the time the man is paying, quite sexist as well. The funny thing is that that men who argue against permanent alimony are taking a strong feminist position.  

This reminds me of the move The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. In it, Tatum accuses Bullock of mans-planing to which Bullock states she can be mans-planing because she is a woman. Tatum replies that he is a feminist and believes a woman can do anything a man can. 

Injustice

My case and this site are all about justice. Justice is about fair and equal treatment under the law.  What I have found out from experience is the reality of our judicial system is much, much different.  In some cases, such as mine, the people who break the laws and rules are richly rewarded while the victims are punished. In other cases, such as below, punishment for crimes committed varies, sometimes incredibly so, depending on who you are. (click on image to enlarge)

Justice is at best inconsistent in our legal system. Which, in the end, only creates contempt for the law.