Cathy Baker

NH absolutely MUST get rid of our family courts. They are overreaching their mandate into every divorce situation and not placing the interests of the children as the first priority. I am not sure when this changed, but I know it has changed. I have had 4 friends with experiences in the last few years with the family courts. Three of those situations involved abuse and in every abusive situation the courts placed the priorities of the abusive parent ahead of the interests of the children. In one instance, the father was found the by courts to be abusive, the courts had ordered extensive evaluations on him and and he was only allowed supervised visits. He found out about a judge who favored fathers and the next thing you know his two young girls were ordered into reunification therapy, ordered to spend nights at his house, along with him and his registered sex offender brother. When the mother tried to fight this the judge told her to shut up or he'd give her something she'd like even less and cut her completely out of her children's lives. The other 2 abuse situations were similar, although the courts had less well documented history regarding the abusive parent. Children ordered into reunification therapy with the abusive parent, the safe parent attempted to protect the children labeled an obstructionist (the courts have a different word for it) and children placed into dangerous situations with their abusers. The nonabuse situation awarded the children's family home to a man who had been married to the children's mother for only 1 year. The mother's parent was willing to buy out the man's share of the home, but the courts would not allow that and gave him the family home because he was 'better able to afford it.' The family court judges are being trained by some national organization in these ridiculous rulings, all of which are damaging children. The NH family courts are an absolute travesty and these courts need to be dissolved. The best decisions made for the children would be better made by the 'first 100 names in the phone book.' Or if mediation does not work, these things should be taken to a jury. No thinking, caring human being would place children in danger like our family courts are doing!