Joomla! site syndication http://marylandsharedparenting.com 2010-09-08T07:40:21+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2010-08-21T15:53:10+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31 text/html 2010-03-17T09:19:58+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29 text/html 2010-02-03T20:16:59+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28 THE MEETINGS FOR 2010 ARE ALL GOING TO BE AT THE WASHINGTON STREET LIBRARY AT 6:30 PMTHE DATES ARE AS FOLLOWS AUGUST 10, 2010DECEMBER 1, 2010ALL ARE INVITED. IF YOU ARE GOING THROUGH A COURT CASE OR HAVE BEEN SHAFTED BY THE COURTS PLEASE COME TO SHARE YOUR STORY AND SUPPORT.NO DEAD BEAT DADS!! text/html 2010-01-26T19:02:18+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27 I would like to urge all fathers of Maryland to take the time to call the Maryland House Judiciary Committee in SUPPORT of Bill 48 introduced by Delegate Michael Smigiel,R-Cecil County.This Bill is to be voted on by the end of the week so time is of the essence. The importance of this Bill can not be understated.As always, The Maryland Fathers Rights League is only asking for a fair playing field,and this Bill will be a step in the right direction. Thank-You. Gary Phillip VP-Maryland Fathers Rights League.Contact info: Toll Free 1-800-492-7122 ext.3488Published: January 24, 2010 11:06 pm Bill would require more information for domestic violence protective ordersAssociated PressANNAPOLIS — The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony Thursday on legislation requiring judges to provide more information to people accused of domestic violence.But advocates for domestic violence victims said the proposed changes could result in fewer protective orders arrived at through consent agreements, forcing victims to testify in court more often.Delegate Michael Smigiel, R-Cecil County, introduced House Bill 48 on the heels of legislation passed last year requiring respondents, or those accused of abuse, to surrender their guns in final protective orders. Protective orders can have a variety of requirements, but often limit contact between the parties involved.Smigiel’s bill would require civil court judges to verbally inform respondents of the consequences of entering into a consent agreement for a final order rather than choosing to have a hearing on whether abuse occurred. It would also allow respondents to withdraw from a consent agreement any time before a final order is issued.“What this bill offers is what any of us would like to have,” said Smigiel. “Information about the consequences of an action you are taking in court.”In consent agreements for protective orders, both parties arrive at and agree to the order’s terms, avoiding a hearing. Consent agreements specify that no finding of abuse has been made, only that the parties have consented to a protective order.But being under a protective order can violate terms of employment or immigration status. Someone under an order can also be required to leave the home they share with their partner.Smigiel’s bill would require judges to spell out to respondents exactly what those consequences are. While judges in criminal cases must outline these facts for defendants charged with crimes, there is no such requirement in civil matters.Current procedure outlines the terms of a consent order in writing, and judges may cite the terms in open court as a matter of their own procedure. They cannot be appealed and become permanent record that cannot be expunged.Laure Ruth, Legal Project Manager at the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, said the bill would put judges in an inappropriate position of providing legal advice. She also expressed concern that the bill would open the door to technical appeals after an order has been agreed to, something that is prohibited now.“There are going to be a lot of cases of buyer’s remorse, or appeals on the grounds that the judge didn’t speak the scripted magic words,” she said.Ruth said as many as half the protective orders issued in district court are arrived at through consent agreements. Such agreements work to the benefit of victims since they are not required to testify or be cross-examined about personal issues like sexual assault.“The intent (of this bill) is to discourage consent agreements,” she said. “And fewer consents means fewer protective orders being issued.”Stephan Moylan, an assistant public defender in Garrett County testifying in support of the bill, said that in his district, respondents often come to court without lawyers and are not given the information they need to understand the terms they are consenting to — including surrendering their hunting rifles and other guns.“The important consequence for someone in Garrett County is that folks can’t fill their freezers with deer meat. There are a lot of people walking out of that courthouse not knowing they can’t put on their camouflage and hang out at their father’s tree stand.” text/html 2009-09-26T10:03:41+01:00 http://marylandsharedparenting.com http://marylandsharedparenting.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25 Male Suicide and the Family Court SystemSeptember 25th, 2009 by Robert Franklin, Esq. I know my father was a good man and a good father. ... He obviously reached a point where he could see that justice was beyond his reach and for reasons that only God will know, decided that taking his life was the only way to end his suffering, Ashlee White wrote. Ashlee signed the letter In Memory of My Loving Father. Those are the words of a 14-year-old Canadian girl writing to that country's prime minister. Her father had been denied access to her because he was unable to pay child support that was set at twice his take-home pay. Darrin White's anguish at losing contact with his daughter, and the frank indifference of the Canadian family court system to either his or her welfare led him to hang himself. As Ashlee said, justice was indeed beyond his reach. That justice is beyond the reach of many fathers is one of the main reason this blog exists; it's one of the reasons for the astonishing growth industry called 'fathers' rights.' Here and in many other places are chronicled the countless injustices done to children and their fathers in the name of a mythology created over the past forty years. That mythology holds that fathers are indifferent to their children at best and dangerous to them at worst. It holds that even the most caring father is incompetent to do the simplest task relating to children.This piece, by the always thoughtful and balanced feminist, Wendy McElroy, deals with another, largely unseen aspect of injustice in family courts - male suicide. Men in this country and others are four to five times as likely to commit suicide as are women. And it turns out that the anti-male bias of family courts plays a significant role.Study's from a number of countries bear this out. As McElroy says,Statistics from Ireland and the United Kingdom indicate rates of male suicide as high as five times that of women. Indeed, a recent study found that suicide was the leading cause of death for Irish men between 15-34 years old.The research also points to a probable cause. According to sociologist Augustine Kposow of the University of California at Riverside, divorce and loss of children is a factor. As far as the [divorced] man is concerned, he has lost his marriage and lost his children and that can lead to depression and suicide, Kposow advises.The Australian study's suggested reasons for some of the suicides include marriage breakdown. There is evidence to suggest that many men sense they are being discriminated against in family court judgements, the study says. Cut off from their children, divorced men experience heightened frustration and isolation. At this point, I'd like to remind readers of what I've written about before. Nature provides a physiological attachment between parents and children. When a woman is pregnant, both she and the father undergo dramatic increases in the levels of the hormones prolactin, cortisol and oestradiol. Among many mammal species, including humans and primates, and among almost all bird species, those hormones are what connect parents to their offspring. They are what make adults set aside their own interests in favor of their offspring's. Survival is perhaps the most powerful motivation any individual has, but so strong is the connection those hormones create in parents that it can displace even the need to live. That connection is the reason that adults will do virtually anything, including fighting to the death, to care for and protect their offspring. Let me suggest then that, when that most basic of connections is threatened or destroyed by a force larger than any single person - a force like the family law system, for example - it can have devastating consequences. If a lioness is willing to die protecting her cubs against hyenas, might not a human father die to maintain the same connection to his child? To me, the two look eerily similar. Whatever the case, read McElroy's piece. Thanks to Jeremy for the heads-up.