|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by WILL FOLKS
***
Not long after rolling out one of the most aggressive judicial selection reform proposals South Carolina has ever seen, the pro-citizen DOGE SC movement took aim at this week at another institutional racket: the Palmetto State’s badly broken family court system.
Billed as “a landmark reform to the state’s family court system aimed at ensuring children maintain meaningful relationships with both parents after separation or divorce,” DOGE SC’s proposed legislation would establish a rebuttable presumption that equal parenting time is in the bested interests of the child “when both parents are fit and willing.”
This new standard – part of the group’s Palmetto Revolution – would establish equal custody as the “default option” in the South Carolina family court system unless a “preponderance of evidence” existed to compel a judge otherwise.
In addition to this sweeping overhaul of the status quo, the proposed legislation “expands oversight and accountability of guardians ad litem, including a right for parents to challenge appointments, a drug-testing requirement, and equitable fee structures for low-income families or families with income disparities.”
Furthermore, it requires family court judges to provide “written justification” when awarding anything less than equal time.
***
According to the group, these reforms will “protect children from manipulation or false allegations by penalizing bad-faith conduct.”
“The family courts in South Carolina are broken and often bankrupt parents by pitting parent against parent in a fight for their children while enriching a vast network of consultants, counselors, and attorneys in the process,” said Rom Reddy, the Isle of Palms, S.C. businessman who founded DOGE SC. “One parent wins, the other gets visitation, and the child always loses. This ends now.”
Reddy said reforming the family court system in South Carolina “is not a partisan issue – it is a moral one”
“Power has transitioned away from parents in decisions involving their children at a difficult time in their lives,” Reddy said. “While more reform is needed, this is a first step in transitioning power back to the parent.”
Like the judicial reform bill introduced last month, Reddy has assembled a diverse group of sponsors for DOGE SC’s family court reform push – including vocal GOP establishment lawmaker Gil Gatch and Freedom Caucus members Sarita Edgerton and Jay Kilmartin.
There’s a reason family court reform legislation has such broad, cross-spectrum support. In rolling out his group’s reform bill, Reddy cited recent polling by Researchscape International which found a whopping 97% of South Carolinians “believe it is in the child’s best interest to have as much time as possible with each parent.” Meanwhile, 82% of respondents supported the crux of the DOGE SC bill – namely the presumption that “shared parenting is in the child’s best interest when both parents are fit and willing.”
Translation? The only people likely to stand against this reform are those profiting from the status quo.
***
RELATED | DOGE SC FOUNDER TEASES FAMILY COURT REFORMS
***
“This bill is expected to garner widespread support from all sides of the aisle,” DOGE SC’s statement announcing the legislation noted.
DOGE SC urged citizens with questions about the Equal Parenting Act to contact the organization via email, noting “we will clarify as many as we can.”
“Of course, we are very sensitive to domestic violence against a child or spouse,” the group noted. “Any past order of domestic violence against a parent, or an order in the process of being entered, ends the 50/50 default. Rather than discouraging a spouse from coming forward, this bill encourages victims to present evidence because doing so ends shared custody.”
“Domestic violence is a serious issue and is fully protected in the bill,” the group added. “Keep in mind that family court primarily handles civil matters. Violence is often adjudicated in criminal court, and any criminal order can be used in family court.”
Reddy made no bones about the institutional opposition his reform legislation is likely to encounter, noting how the Palmetto State’s entrenched system preys on those who lack the resources to fight it.
“The vast majority of family court decisions today are controlled by a cabal of lawyers, guardians ad litem, and consultants who greatly influence judges on who is considered the suitable parent and bankrupt most families in the process,” he said. “Unfortunately, I have had close acquaintances victimized by this system. You never want your child’s future to be decided by a group of highly paid strangers. Please educate yourself on the bill and its safeguards. And remember: if there are good ideas for improvement, we will listen. We are not obligated to anyone or anything other than helping citizens trapped in a broken system.”
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
4 comments
Nothing original in this. All lifted from dozens of other websites then cherry picked.
Reddy makes me laugh. Remember, he himself is a lawbreaker
More laws…that’s the plan?
I like “returning power to the parents” but I suspect that is not going to be a consistent position, right?
About time!
Other SC groups long before DOGE SC also advocated, pushed, even had organized protest outside of courthouses where SC domestic cases were heard. Some of the protest were covered and video broadcasted on state tv news stations. Attorneys where said to be furious of the exposure. They were threatened by theses dirty lawyers that with lawsuits over the money racked
Tsystem being exposed.
The dirtiest domestic court attorneys who only practiced before the SC family court felt seriously threatened by exposure. So what happened is these lawyers wanted them silenced and obviously so did sitting domestic court judges. Hence, the fangs and claws came out. The system was soon weaponized against these groups and their leaders. They even reportedly sent in moles to attend their open to the public domestic court reform meetings.
An investigative reporter was hired by one the above-mentioned groups. Her name is “Karen Winner.” She has written nationally recognized books, been on talk shows, spoken before many groups. She did a jaw dropping report on that seriously rattled cages. In one reported incident while she was at one of the largest county’s clerk of court offices in SC going through public domestic court case files, That day, Winner is believed to have been accosted by attorneys who seem to have been tipped off she was there. This is said to have been documented in her investigative report.
Many of the attorneys around when she did her report are still active or now retired. She use to have a website. Could be still up. If Winner can be contacted, her report on SC will dive into another part of a still much alive SC corrupt domestic court system that has always been.
Reforming this system is one thing, but you have to remove the crooked untrustworthy players and lawyers. Otherwise, nothing really stops.