Good News: Bill to Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation Dies
August 2nd, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & FamiliesBackground: In April, I called your attention to a new, damaging Parental Alienation bill in the California legislature. In my co-authored column AB 612 Will Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 4/2/07), I explained:
"A new bill authored by Assemblymember Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City) will harm children of divorce by making it much harder for courts to protect children from alienation. Under AB 612, mental health professionals will be discouraged from issuing findings of Parental Alienation in child custody cases...
"When a parent’s children are being alienated, he or she must wage an often long and expensive fight to get family courts to recognize the alienation and take decisive action. AB 612 would discourage independent mental health professionals from issuing findings of Parental Alienation in divorce/custody cases. It would also make it more difficult for target parents to get courts to order psychological evaluations as part of child custody investigations. Under AB 612, such evaluations will be allowed only under 'exceptional circumstances when there is strong evidence that a parent’s current mental or psychological status might seriously impair his or her parenting ability.'
"This standard is unreasonably high, and will prevent many target parents from saving their relationships with their children. The legislature should be exhorting family courts to protect children from Parental Alienation, not putting up barriers to prevent them from doing so."
A couple weeks ago I reported that policy consultant Michael Robinson of the California Alliance for Families and Children helped lead successful opposition to AB 612, and that the bill had been amended and defanged. Robinson worked with the Family Law Executive Committee of the California State Bar (Flexcom), the California Psychologists Association (CPA), the Association of Family Conciliation Courts (AFCC), the California Judges Association, and others.
Michael now reports that the bill has died. As has often happened in California in recent years, the Family Law Section of the State Bar (Flexcom) came out in defense of noncustodial parents' rights, just as they did with AB 164 and with the events surrounding the LaMusga decision. I thank them and the other groups listed above for their work.
Robinson is one of the most effective advocates in our movement, and I urge all to support him. To donate to the California Alliance for Families and Children, click here. To learn more about Parental Alienation, click here. The bill may well be back next year, so we need to remain on top of this issue.
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August 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Well done.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Guys, it’s gut-check time.
There are forces afoot to bring this back in even a more Draconian form next year. And they will succeed in doing so...
Glenn and others have repeatedly carried the message to contribute to the CAF&C. Many have stepped up and put a few bucks on their monthly credit card bill. You cannot believe how much this adds to the fight. Knowing this money is coming in, you can beat a path to Kinkos to get more things printed to give to the legislators so they have OUR message in front of them. By the way, a print run easily tops $250…
We all agree that the only way to cut Family Court and the Ex off at the pockets is to have strong laws they have no option to ignore.
Where are the headwaters to good laws? Believe it or not, September thru December is when the bills get written, supporters and co-signers are brought on board, the message gets refined, and opposition comments get neutralized.
September, October, November, and December.
Can you step up for four months on the credit card? Can you help get the bills written so they are fair, honest, and sincere and presented one-on-one to legislators for support? There is a 6-week period in January-February 2008 when all these bills get filed and it sets the stage for the whole secession.
After February 23, 2008, your are, excuse this, pissing upwind. After 2/23/08, your thoughts, hopes, and dreams are pretty much toast. The real fight occurs September to December. We need you ringside. Please contribute.
If Family Court has wiped up the floor with you and you are tired of it, or you do not what to see your male children facing the same things your are, the next four months is where it happens.
Guys, it’s gut-check time. If four months is all you can do, this is the time of year is really needs to happen. Contact CAF&C and give them four months of a piece of your mind.
DanH
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
California is a big state and this bill death is good news. State by state we have a national problem and Californias stance is very influential to every other state. CAF&C and Michael Robinson deserves every fathers support. "And then they knocked on my door"--Nazi parable
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
We still need to deal with SB353.
SB353 is a far slipperier slope than the misguided Senator Kuehl would have you believe. Next year, women will get an extra few sheets in their divorce packet, so when her attorney says sign here, here, here, and here, Dad gets hooked for another $2,000 in legal fees for Kuehl’s Domestic Violence Hamster Protection Act Legislation. This piece of legislation does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the State of California except to make it a worse place to live and generate income for divorce lawyers.
The senators voting for this are proving to have a staff impervious to the smell of Senator Kuehl’s brain farts.
If Arnold vetos it, maybe more than a few Senators will wake up and have second thoughts about voting “Yes” for it.
Next we’ll have the Domestic Violence Plant Protection Act (Google ethical treatment for plants and get ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND hits.), followed by the Domestic Violence Furniture Protection Act. Next Senator Kuehl will be serving up the Domestic Violence Grandma’s Heirloom Pocket Tampon Holder Protection Act.
The State of California has far more pressing problems than an SB353 solution to a totally non-existent problem. Let's dump this one too and not look back.
DanH
August 4th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
What's this Stop California From Falling into the Ocean Act? Arizona is against it and is the only state in the union you don't have to be a lawyer to practice law. The lawyers in California would be swimming to a forbidding land.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:06 am
[...] "Obviously, this new legislation slipped under the radar and is now law in Florida. The concerns that I have are the obvious ones: that the purpose of this legislation, to protect children from being sexually abused, is much more likely to have the effect of supporting the process of alienation. I do believe that this law will be significantly corrected or repealed since it truly does violate certain civil rights, and ignores due process. However we know that this will take considerable time, and until then many fathers will be at great peril of losing their children." The text of the bill can be found here. It's passage "under the radar" is another indicator of the weakness of our movement. We should have a full time legislative associate/lobbyist in Tallahassee who would have picked up on this bill and helped organize opposition to it. Like Michael Robinson of the California Alliance for Families and Children recently did with AB 612--to learn more, see Good News: Bill to Make It Harder to Protect Children from Parental Alienation Dies. [...]