I received an alert regarding an Assembly Bill that was heard last week. I thought you should be made aware of it:
"AB 1877 (Adams) is being heard on by the CA Assembly Judiciary Committee Tuesday March 25. This bill would make disclosing a custody evaluation report an act that would potentially allow the court to sanction you and remove your child. This is a report you paid a great deal of money for. This would mean that you could not show the report to an oversight agency, your therapist, law enforcement, or any organization trying to bring sunlight into the dark family court system."
"Existing law provides that in any contested proceeding involving child custody or visitation rights, the court may appoint a child custody evaluator to conduct a child custody evaluation in cases
where the court determines it is in the best interests of the child. If directed by the court, the court-appointed child custody evaluator shall file a written confidential report on his or her evaluation, which report shall not be made available other than as specified. In addition, any information obtained from access to a juvenile court case file is confidential and shall only be disseminated as specified."
"This bill would provide that the unwarranted disclosure of the report may result in the imposition by the court of specified sanctions. Furthermore, when making orders regarding the physical or legal custody of the child, the court shall consider the unwarranted disclosure of the report in determining the best interests of the child. The bill would require that the Judicial Council, by January 1, 2010, adopt a form that informs the report recipient of the confidentiality of the report and the potential consequences for the unwarranted disclosure of the report; and adopt a rule to require that, when a court-ordered child custody evaluation report is served on the parties, the form shall be included with the report."
If this or any other type of similar bill that uses confidentiality to avoid oversight is passed, we are in big trouble. Remember, not all Judges, attorneys, social workers and Evaluators are honest, caring and competent
If you've been reading my post, we have had "judges" who do crossword puzzles and solitaire during Juvenile Dependency hearings, Evaluators who 'evaluate' without even SEEING the person, and other, at best, incompetent activities.
Oversight IS in the best interest of the children.
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2 comments:
By not identifying the judge in the case of now three dead kids you enable him to run for and win another election. This misinforms and undereducates your readers. But as this blog shows, you are by now means, alone.
http://judicialtransparencynow.blogspot.com/
More dead kids at www.FamilyLawCourts.com/kids.html
The solution? Bypassing state judicial commissions.
www.USAjudges.com
Unfortunately corporate values in media don't include family valuses. Proof of this being there isn't a media company in the nation that assigns a beat reporter to the busiest court in the nation. Until that changes, expect more stories.
Sent to each assemblyman voting "AYE"
"Dear Ms. Lieber,
Please withdraw your support for AB1877 - which provides the ability for an abusive parent to keep secret the abuse. Also, more accountability not secrecy disguised as "confidentiality" is needed in family court.
To address the seriousness of this request, please read about the number of children murdered by their parents, listed alphabetically by state, at www.FamilyLawCourts.com/kids.html.
In many cases one parent's evidence of abuse was discounted by the Courts. In too many other cases, the abusive parent frequently has the money to pay for dubious reports, and is rewarded custody. I also invite you to read "Children Held Hostage" which underscores the problem, or, viewing the 2005 PBS documentary titled "Breaking the Silence" which details two decades of children going to the higher income and frequently abusive, parent.
Ultimately, AB1877 would protect an abusive parent.
The State's concern about confidentiality has been and continues to be significantly misplaced. Worse, in San Diego, was a Grand Jury report detailing repeated instances of State personnel lying in social services cases.
http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/safety/grand/reports/report2.html
including the letter from the Jury Foreman to John Burton, who happened to be the pro tem at the time.
To save time I've included portions of the letter from the Grand Jury, from the report:
“The San Diego Grand Jury has:
* Seen episodes of social worker perjury in court records, and indeed, even in court testimony.
* heard testimonies by attorneys and court-appointed therapists that social workers have threatened to have them removed from court approved lists if they failed to adhere to the social worker's recommendations
* heard testimonies that social workers have threatened to remove additional children from families who fail to exactly follow social workers recommendations even when there is no issue regarding that child.
* heard testimonies that even repeated adverse reports by professionals about individual social workers have resulted in a failure to discipline
* heard testimonies from attorneys that when faced with the most blatant abuses of power, there are still no remedies for their clients
* heard therapists testify that social workers have threatened to ruin their careers with a report that they have "accommodated the denial" of a client, or questioned a "true finding"
* seen evidence of social workers conspiring to place children for adoption with their own (social worker’s) family members even while reunification with natural family was in process
* seen evidence of social workers placing children in particular foster homes which would render the opportunity to reunify non-existent
* read numerous Social Study reports filled with innuendo, half truths and lies"
***
To make the situation worse, examples of media not identifying the judge in cases of parents murdering their children, can be found at http://judicialtransparencynow.blogspot.com/
About the only protection a child has is the clear light of sunshine on a proceedings. The truth is always best, and best not attempt to hide it.
If you have any questions, please contact me; and thank you for your time.
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