http://dist03.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={4FB00BFE-0C03-481F-BF0F-A1BCB8A3580B}&DE={B6970775-5EE4-4AF9-BAE4-66F4A13B1C0F}
State orders audit of Marin family court
Wednesday, July 01, 2009

By Gary Klien.
Published July 1, 2009. Marin Independent-Journal.

Prodded by Sen. Mark Leno and other lawmakers, the state Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted Wednesday to investigate the family courts in Marin and Sacramento counties.

The audit will focus on the use, and potential misuse, of court-appointed specialists in family-law disputes, such as mediators, investigators and therapists.

Critics say such appointees can form incestuous and incompetent networks more concerned with generating fees than helping children through painful custody fights.

“It becomes a service mill, a cottage industry of sorts,” Leno said in an interview Wednesday. “Maybe state law needs to be changed.”

Marin and Sacramento counties were chosen for the audit because of the number of litigants reporting problems and filing complaints, said Ali Bay, a spokeswoman for Leno. But any changes recommended by the auditors could inspire new statewide legislation. [...]

Leno, a Democrat representing Marin and parts of San Francisco and Sonoma County, said the committee voted unanimously for the family court audit, demonstrating the widespread doubts about the system.

“People are concerned the health and well-being of children might be at risk,” Leno said. “I’ve had mothers and fathers in tears in my office, telling me their sad stories. Minimally, we have to look into this and see what the truth is.”

The audit was approved two months after Marin Superior Court issued a report extolling its efforts to increase public confidence in its family-law division. The changes followed a turbulent decade for the family court, whose critics launched a fierce but unsuccessful recall campaign against several judges and a former district attorney. [..]

But the report still didn’t address the core issue of the mediators and other specialists appointed to advise the courts, said Kathleen Russell of the Center for Judicial Excellence, a Marin watchdog organization.

“Needless to say, we’re thrilled that we had such unanimous support from the committee for the audit request,” Russell said. “We spent 17 months working with legislators to educate them about the problems. It’s really the end of a long journey, but we’ll be working with the auditors as well.”

The state auditors are expected to investigate how court appointees are selected, how they are trained and evaluated, how their fees are established, and how complaints against them are resolved, among other issues. [...]

Oh, by the way, as previously stated, and I think even he will agree..the title of Queen goes to McConnell. Check out his “open lifestyle” and you will see what I mean.

The bottom line to all of you is this. If people would grow the hell up, stop acting like 2yr olds, honor their marriage oaths, spend quality time with one another and respect one another,,,,then guess what? We wouldnt need so many judges, the judges wouldnt have so many cases to work on a daily basis,,,,and we would more than likely not be having this conversation.

This understates the problem of bad judges. Many people dissatisfied with the judge win, but at great cost. When you are preparing to go to court, you must consider the judges that you could be in front of. If there is a chance that you could be in front of a biased judge or one who is known to show favoritism, that plays into your decision of whether to go to court at all. It also affects the decision of how well you must be prepared … and how expensive of an attorney you must get. So there are many that prevail in court when there is a biased judge, particularly if they have the great good luck of not getting that judge, but at great expense of time, money, and energy in preparation.

And then there are those that do not go to court and live with bad situations for fear of being on the unfavored side and getting an unfavorable ruling from a biased judge.

The Judge issues is a big smoke screen to the issue of Glen McConnell and his political favors, influence, and threats. This is what the issue should truly be about.

Yes Judges make mistakes at times, but the main people who truly have a problem with Judges are those who have lost

i do think that Glen McConnell is intelligent and for the most part does a good job,,until he starts trying to treaten people, senators and judges if they dont rule as he says.

There have been some major political embarassments and upsets in SC this year….The Govenor, the man who had sex with the horse, and Glen McConnell. With Glenns reputation, sexual preference, threats and influence,,,it wouldnt at all surprise me if it wasnt Glen M. who was having sex with the horse,,,and if it were Glen M who was just another of Sanford’s mistress…lol

Judge Andrews is a very fair and reasonable judge. She is smart and competent and hard working. She has started many community programs which are supported with the courts, not the least of which is Drug Court. When your house is NOT broken into by a druggie, thank her.

She is not perfect — who is (certainly not glenn mcconnell!) Judges make mistakes — hello! But, that is what the appellate courts are for so a judge can freely make a decision and it will be overseen in the cooler light of a later day by judges who weren’t involved in what happened. Naturally, a trial judge’s decisions are entitled to much deference, but that is far from unlimited and our Court of Appeals supported her decision in this ONE case. I am glad someone set out the facts in that case above.

First to find such a fine judge “unqualified” and then for that kangaroo court decision be able to BAR her from even being considered by the General Assembly highlights even further how wrong our current system is.

Something has to give. All judges in SC are VERY nervous, and as it turns out, many are far from as qualified as Judge Andrews and have much to fear. That is wrong.

Here’s the latest from the P&C (with no comments allowed): http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/dec/04/decision-on-judge-expected-quickly/

And here are some comments on another site: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/charleston-sc/TNUPM4RPQSBPIM4IO/p3#lastPost

Thank you Glenn McConnell and outside press for bringing this story to light!