PARENT'S RIGHTS NOW!

COMMENTS ON FAMILY COURT REFORM LEGISLATION IN SC

Log on to http://www.statehousereport.com/feedback/index.htm to read all the comments posted regarding the proposed family court reform legislation in South Carolina. We have posted two of them hereinbelow.
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3/8: Family court needs juries

To the editor:

I am writing to you because my children and I are a victim of the family court. ... Your reform [Commentary, 3/5] would not help. I have been on T. V. and the newspapers with my story. ... So you see it happens to good parents, the parent without the money. So I would say to you, the only thing that would help is a jury. The only way you or any one can help is to have a jury to decide our children's future. These Judges are too biased to one Lawyer. And for the Guardians

(OH MY), they are biased too.

-- Cindy Leonard, Hilton Head Island, SC

3/6: More needed on family court reform

To the editor:

I applaud our state legislators' overdue effort to reform our overworked family court system. [Commentary, 3/5] Perhaps this is an indirect acknowledgment that our state (family law) legal judicial process has failed to provide the standard of care that exist in other states.

What do we tell those that have endured the emotional and financial abuse dish out by our over worked family/state court? Sorry SouthCarolina doesn't have it together right now you'll just have to suffer the consequences, have a nice life.

My personal experiences suggest that caseload has little to do with common sense and making informed and correct rulings. We must go back to the judicial selection process for that.

I know this sounds like sour grapes, but I would advise Senator Ritchie and Chief Justice Toal to include plaintiff and defendants' experiences when it comes to address family court reform. If you rely totally on the legislative/legal community you'll likely get contaminated and biased result.

Let's be honest the family court system is designed around independence with little or no accountability to fairly meet the (cost effective) needs of the people it is suppose to correctly serve.

I hope these five new major changes improve our family court system. I would recommend to our legislative panel that we have plaintiff and defendant sign the court orders (QDRO) as well since these are often isolated independent decisions by our overworked attorneys and judge(s) and often errors and mistakes can be detected better by the people most familiar with the case, (the people it affects!).

-- Terry R. Housley, Wedgefield, SC