WE CAN DO MORE

Take a look at Family Courts in nearby counties and you will find mediation being stressed & offered to parents fighting over custody, waiting rooms that separate hostile parties, and day care ("safe rooms") for children.

MEDIATION ISN'T AN OPTION--IT IS A NECESSITY.

What is the easiest way to deepen feelings of hostility between the parents? Make them litigate. Make them testify in court about all the negative feelings that they have for each other. Make it about winning or losing and you will embitter those parents for years. And that will usually be felt by the children.
Offer those parents mediation and you greatly increase the chances that they can get through the process and be better able to co-parent even while living apart.

LOOK AT IT FROM THE CHILD'S POINT OF VIEW

If you become estranged from your spouse, you can stop thinking of him/her as your family. Time goes by, maybe you meet someone else, and your Ex becomes, well, your Ex. They aren't your family anymore. But to a child, both parents will always be family.

If you really want to PROTECT FAMILIES, you have to design the Family Court process to encourage parents to resolve their custody / visitation issues with the least amount of conflict possible. Avoiding a trial, settling with the help of mediators--that protects families.

Some cases have to be tried, but if a child's best interests can be served without trial, everyone benefits.

Our county's Family Court doesn't stress mediation. Many more cases should be referred to mediation than are going there at present. Until there is a substantial increase in mediation, any claim that our system "protects families" rings hollow.

LAWYERS AREN'T ENOUGH

Lawyers are trained in the adversarial process. They are taught to advance their client's interests through litigation. In other civil courts the subject of the fight is usually money. In those cases, in the end, it is only money. Family Court should be different. In that Court, we should be with concerned with children. Doing it wrong in that Court hurts far more than one’s bank account.

The longer the fight, the more money lawyers charge. And in Family Court, the longer the fight, the deeper the wounds. Good lawyers won't deliberately prolong litigation, but it can still happen if no one seeks a better way.

MEDIATORS ARE TRAINED TO SEEK AGREEMENT

Mediators in Family Court can help children by helping parents avoid bitterness. They can SAVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS by helping avoid trials that cost the court system resources and money. They can SAVE PARENTS MONEY that could be better spent on their children.

There are not enough referrals to mediation in Saratoga County Family Court. If elected, I WILL WORK TO INCREASE MEDIATION IN OUR FAMILY COURT.

SAFETY & DIGNITY

Where is the safety and dignity for an abused child or adult forced to share a waiting room with their attacker? Our Family Court HAS NO SAFE ROOM. There isn't even a divider in the waiting room.
Feelings run higher in Family Court than in any other court. Yet victims, abusers, and those falsely accused have to sit in one waiting room within sight of each other.

This is AN ISSUE OF SECURITY. Forcing people into this stressful atmosphere is a recipe for disaster. Across the country, the courts that suffer from the most incidents of violence are Family Courts. Our inadequate facility only increaseS the chances of violence.

WHY AREN'T THE CHILDREN CONSIDERED?

It is stressful for adults to come to Family Court, but it can be more stressful for children. Yet there is nothing to protect them from the tense surroundings. There are NO BOOKS, TOYS or GAMES, & NO SAFE ROOM for them.

Parents should be provided with a pamphlet outlining common pitfalls (putting the kids in the middle, etc.) and tips to protect their children from the fallout of litigation. Information about what to expect in the process should be provided. This isn’t being done.

FAMILY COURT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT CHILDREN. But our county's Family Court offers them little facility.

IT IS PAST TIME FOR A CHANGE

I have been practicing in this Family Court for nearly 20 years. I have seen few changes that impact these concerns in all that time. Instead, the status quo is maintained. Why? Is it for lack of money? No--or else other counties would be just as backward. They're not.
I suspect it is because no one is motivated enough to really care.

One party has had a near monopoly on having their judges on that bench for 40 years. Maybe they believe that a "business as usual" attitude is acceptable and no one can do anything about it.
Not this year. Not if I can help it.

My opponent has had his 10 years on the bench. And in that 10 years little has changed. There is not enough mediation, no safe room, nothing for the children to do, no dividers in the waiting room to separate hostile parents or victims and abusers.

THIS IS THE YEAR TO CHANGE THE FAMILY COURT. If elected, I WILL DO MORE. I will incorporate the innovations that have worked in our neighboring counties. Saratoga County should not take "last place" in protecting children and assisting parents. As of right now, it does.

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