Family Court Crisis: Surviving A Broken System is a moving photography exhibition from the Center for Judicial Excellence in Marin County, California.
Click on the images below to read a short summary of each family’s tragic story or scroll down to read more about the exhibit.
JONEA – Stylist – 12 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA & Kauai County, HI
KIMBERLEY – Graphic Designer – 1.5 Years in Family Court – Fairfax County, VA
KAREN A – DV/Sex Abuse Counselor – 14 Years in Family Court – Amador County, CA
JOE – Chiropractor – 6 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA
ERIC – Firefighter – 7 Years in Family Court – Prince George’s County, MD
JENNIFER – Student – 9 Years in Family Court – Hennepin County, MN
YUPA – Nurse – 10 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA
SUSAN & SARAH – Retired & Sales/Retail – 13 Years in Family Court – San Mateo County, CA
ROZ & CHRISTIAN – Retired Investment Analyst & Entrepreneur – 9 Years in Family Court – San Diego County, CA & Yavapai County, AZ
RAMA – Unemployed – 2 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA
MELONIE – Phlebotomist – 4.5 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA
PAULA – Systems Engineer – 10 Years in Family Court – Anne Arundel County, MD
TARA – Psychic – 1.5 Years in Family Court – Marin County, CA
Experts at the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence estimate that more than 58,000 children per year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States. This is more than twice the yearly rate of new cases of childhood cancer.
This exhibit & book expose an untold story that the mainstream media has avoided for years – the systemic breakdown of America’s family court system. The fact that this type of scandal is taking place in the American judicial system defies the imagination. This is a tragic and true story that you will struggle to believe.
Not since the Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the United States seen this level of institutional collusion and corruption harming innocent children.
This moving collection of photos and stories reveals the life altering – and often unbelievable – experiences of 14 families who have survived traumatic family court ordeals in eight different states. Their courageous stories represent a snapshot of a growing national and international epidemic. Family court judges, mediators and well-paid court appointees routinely ignore the law and violate mandatory family court and domestic violence procedures. They frequently disregard medical and other evidence of sexual and physical abuse, including police reports, domestic violence restraining orders and child abuse reports made to Child Protective Services by teachers, therapists and doctors.
Family courts are taking children away from protective parents who complain of domestic violence and/or child abuse. These kids are placed in the homes of violent, neglectful, dangerously mentally ill, and/or otherwise abusive parents who have the financial means to hire a bevy of “professionals” to pathologize the protective parent and/or child. These mothers and fathers not only lose custody of the children they are trying to protect from abuse, but they are forced by the court to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in mandatory fees to therapists, evaluators, co-parenting counselors and attorneys for their children. Many go bankrupt, making court appeals impossible. The family law ‘machine’ is operating as Big Business, and a sophisticated cottage industry has sprung up that preys on desperate parents and children who are trying to escape family violence.
It is our sincere desire that this book and related exhibit will put a human face on the widespread destruction that is taking place in our family courts. We also wish to bring hope to those who have suffered through this nightmare ~ real hope that their devastating nightmares in the family courts will be seen and believed, and that their stories will inspire the sweeping reforms that are so desperately needed in our nation’s broken family court system.