Custody | NY Divorce Consultants

4Oct/101

A case study of conflict of interest In New York – divorce custody and business evaluators

Wikipedia definition of conflict of interest - A conflict of interest (COI) occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other. Well this could never be truer than what exists in New York custody evaluators and business evaluators. If you are pro se and you are facing one of these clowns you are doomed because custody evaluators are bought and sold and as an outsider you will be destroyed in evaluations. New York has laid fertile ground for conflicts of interest for both custody and business evaluators and it is time to end this.

First of all, there are no state law requirements for who these people are. I challenge you to find a single law or regulation penned by the great state of New York that explains how someone actually becomes a custody evaluator or a business evaluator. While there are certainly vague guidelines of how to evaluate custody anyone can be one of these jobs with the most basic of education. The custody evaluator I was assigned was chosen by my lawyer as I had one when they were trying to take my kids away. It bankrupted me but it worked as I kept access to my children but it was mortifying to have my sanity evaluated in a karate studio as my evaluator was more of a sensei than he was an evaluator. While we took extensive breaks in my custody evaluation so that the evaluator could travel to Japan and learn more sensei magic, attention to psychological detail paled in comparison to his interest in martial arts, hence the martial arts custody evaluation office. I remember the feeling of driving up to a karate studio for the most important psychological evaluation of my life and thinking what the f? But what I experienced isn't atypical as there are no guidelines for who these people are.

So there are no standards for who will evaluate your mental health or your finances but this is only the beginning of joke because the real punch line is in how they are assigned to cases. Regardless of garbage you may find on the Internet these people are chosen by the litigants attorneys and maybe the judge. In my case it was three old buddies, my lawyer, the other and the Judge. Worked together for at least 10 years. So when it came time to choose evaluators they went deep in the rolodex and picked some dear old friends whom they both felt confident they could influence. The strategy worked so long as I could keep paying but once I ran out of money it fell to crap. As Pro Se the forensic evaluator who was all buddy buddy when I had an attorney quickly teamed up with my adversary when he realized I was broke. Which leads to one of the other major conflicts of interest, this one is so glaring that it demands its own line:

Court appointed neutral evaluators can switch sides at any time all depending upon who will pay them. This is really unimaginable because each evaluator knows that they better watch their steps and side with the richer party because that's where the biz will come from. The $15,000 stater evaluation is nothing compared to whats to come. My evaluator kindly advised me in writing that he was damn expensive when it came to litigation. While he demanded pre-payment of a paltry $250/hour his litigation rate increased to nearly $400 an hour, again with pre-payment only. As I sat in the sensei's studio for about 8 hours taking standardized mental tests, which incidentally yielded nothing, I remember thinking what a great job this was. I just paid about $5,000 to have 2 of these tests administered and analyzed. The trouble was that they were never really analyzed in the end as I learned later, only administered. With a lawyer I was able to defend against this clown because my lawyer had juice and got about $60,000 from me, which was all of my 401k, a college fund and borrowed money. But once I lost the lawyer I saw how these guys switch sides. The business evaluator quickly went on the payroll of my adversary and became a 'witness' during my trial. In the hallway my adversary said quite loudly and clearly that he wasn't going to let me ask any questions and the forensic evaluator, Jerry DeFeo, earned his money that day. Dutifully refusing to answer any questions I posed and at many points simply laughing at my inability to properly construct a trial question. How it was that a neutral evaluator could switch to the side that can afford to pay is beyond comprehension.

If an evaluator is appointed as neutral, yet the Judge is not bound at all to listen to what they say, and they can easily switch sides depending on who's paying them how is that neutral? Judges are not bound by these clowns, they can say whatever they want to and the judge can or can't listen. Neutral suggests that they are working for the Judge but this is absolute lie. Judges can ignore them and the evaluators are not the judges neutral eyes and ears, evaluators are simply tools of the litigants to be manipulated as needed and as afforded.

The final kicker is that these clowns don't write full reports unless you cough up another $25,000 - $50,000. For $15,000 you get the 1 page summary, you want the detail, cough up at least $25,000, plus fees for your attorneys. My business evaluator wrote a letter and had a conference with the attorneys - that was his deliverable. I wanted more but that was going to cost me. I'm assuming that my attorney paid off my custody evaluator nicely because the wishy-washy pseudo-report he wrote boiled down to one sentence that required no evaluation - In adolescence it is best for children to be with the same-sex parent, though the other parent needs to be very close by and actively engaged in the life of the children. So what cost me about $65,000 was certainly worth it but when I couldn't pay the hammer fell.

So let's recap the conflict of interests in forensics. 1) There are no official qualifications to be a custody evaluator or a forensic evaluator, anyone can be one. 2) Neutral evaluators are chosen by the litigants attorneys, not any type of random system. 3) Neutral custody evaluators or business evaluators can switch from neutral to prosecution or defense witness at any time, just pay them and you got em, pre-pay by the way or they won't play until the check clears. Mr. DeFeo was pretty clear to me, pre-pay or no play. 4) The reports of evaluators can be ignored by judges and the evaluators know it, what matters is what comes after the evaluation, specifically, who's paying.

Filed under: Custody 1 Comment

1Jun/100

Repeal the New York Divorce Reform Act of 2010

2010 is a sad year for families of New York who are considering divorce. If you are considering divorce in New York you must read this before you file a Request for Judicial Intervention.

New York matrimony laws are in crisis. In New York we face the highest divorce costs in the nation with a state divorce industry that is entirely unregulated and easily exceeds $1 Billion. We face grave violations of our civil rights in New York if we can't afford to defend ourselves in a contentious divorce. We lose our children, we lose our homes and we face financial ruin solely because we can't afford the process. As New Yorkers we are bound by our constitution to go to the Supreme Court if we can't settle our differences in divorce but we have been betrayed by our constitutional system. Our courts support a bloated and predatory divorce industry and our legislature works hard to keep this in place. We are forced to go to court by the laws and the justice system has sold us to the divorce industry.

New York had a tremendous chance to fix this in a recently passed bill S5667A, sponsored by Suzi Oppenheimer, which is liberally called the 'Divorce Reform Bill of 2010'. For those of you who missed this embarrassing legislation here are the highlights. Maintenance can now be awarded for life, attorneys are now guaranteed that the richest party will pay both bills at hourly rates that the ATTORNEYS decide and we now have a new fault of irreconcilable differences.

Whenever the inept New York legislature looks at matrimony reform they always flaunt the legally esoteric issue of fault. It is true that New York is the only state in the county left with a fault but statistics show that it has little material value in the legal process. In 2008, according the NY Department of Health statistics, out of 52,619 over 90% of couples agree to divorce or gain divorce through imprisonment or severe abuse. Only 196 cases were decided on adultery even though infidelity is a frequent contributor to marital problems. So if the majority of New Yorkers are agreeing on divorce grounds or facing extreme circumstances why would the New York State legislature take this as a central cause? If fault is such a bad thing why did the Divorce Reform Bill of 2010 add another fault? Incredible logic.

Fault is truly a smokescreen and this will be the campaign rhetoric. However, the true damage of this bill lays in how it now protects attorney fees even more than they were protected in the past. Section 6 reads "THERE SHALL BE A REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION THAT COUNSEL FEES SHALL BE AWARDED TO THE LESS MONIED SPOUSE." and continues "AT THE HOURLY RATE ORDINARILY AND CUSTOMARILY CHARGED BY SUCH ATTORNEY FOR SUCH LEGAL SERVICES." What? We now have a law in New York that lets attorneys set the fees they charge and the fees are guaranteed to be paid by the monied spouse (unknowingly), simply because we needed the Courts intervention? Who decides what is customary? I have very different customs from my divorce attorneys, trust me. Under the illustrious Divorce Reform Act of 2009 if you fill out a Request for Judicial Intervention both lawyers have a right to demand a retainer fee from the monied spouse and that the funds "... SHALL BE AWARDED ON A TIMELY BASIS."

We are constitutionally bound to go the New York State Supreme Court to obtain a divorce if we can't solve our differences for any reason. This is our right as citizens. But what a sucker’s game it is.

Furthermore, now maintenance is awarded for lifetime. A person who had a good run but lost their job or changed careers or just burned out is now burdened for the rest of their lives by what may have been a fleeting success. You don't need to be any great scholar of history to see that economic cycles change, markets change and people change. New York has now legislated a fairyland where things never change and we are lawfully bound to pay attorneys at and HOURLY RATE until we die.

I have never been so disgusted as a New York citizen in 15 years as a taxpayer here. This is a truly pathetic period in New York State politics and I pray that you will take notice of my letter and give it serious consideration. This is a severe tragedy for the families of New York and it needs to be repealed.

The only steps that will fix the problems in New York will require civil rights litigation and divorce industry regulation. It will require people who have lost complete access to their children based on fraudulent information or sham forensic reports to seek amends. It will take a powerful organization to fight on behalf of children who have had a parent violently ripped from their lives by the State. It will require people who were denied access to their constitutionally deemed court simply because they could not afford retainer fees to act. It will take a large organization like the ACLU or a child rights group to step up to the plate and challenge New York's unconstitutional laws that discriminate access to the courts based on economic status. It will take laws that require the people who decide the fate of our children, forensic psychologists, to register with New York and agree on a standard battery of evaluations.

Something has to change and we can't rely on our legislature or the court system to make it happen. We need outrage to change this and we need to repeal the Divorce Reform Act of 2010.

1Jun/102

Worst New York Legislation of 2010 – Divorce Reform Act of 2010

In cases you haven't read the joke of a reform bill that Suzi Oppenheimer sponsored to the New York State Senate, here is a link

Here is a letter I wrote to Senator Oppenheimer, I'll post answers if they come. This bill should have been entitled 'Divorce Attorney Billing Protection act of 2010.' This bill is the biggest piece of shit imaginable and leaves the unregulated billion dollar divorce industry of New York untouched.

Dear Senator Oppenheimer,

I have read your legislation that you ridiculously call the Divorce Reform Act of 2010 and I am appalled. It should more aptly be called the 'Matrimony Lawyers Protection Act of 2010' because this seems to be all that it does. You protect the obscene, hourly billings of the billion-dollar divorce industry and LEGALLY PROTECT that practice of hourly billing in section 6 of your bill.

The root causes of problems in NY Divorce are simple - an unregulated divorce industry that easily bills over $1Billion per year in New York and a corrupt Supreme Court that supports this industry. New Yorkers that enter the divorce system are stripped of tremendous amounts of wealth and can completely lose access to their children without ever having been convicted of a crime or with proper representation. Your reform does nothing to address these root cause issues. Fault is a legal smokescreen that doesn't address the abuses of the divorce industry and the numerous civil rights violations that the New York Supreme Court commits against its citizens.

First of all, I demand to know the true authors of this bill and I demand to see a list of your offices contacts withe New York Bar lobbying groups because clearly they have written your statue. I demand to see the minutes of the working committee that developed this bill and I demand to be pointed to legislative sessions where this bill was argued along with a list of experts consulted for the creation of this bill.

I will ask you a few common sense questions and I would love to hear your responses.

In your bill you maintain that the monied pouse MUST pay all attorneys fees. You further maintain that these fees MUST BE HOURLY and must be RATE ORDINARILY AND CUSTOMARILY CHARGED BY THE ATTORNEY.

1) Did your office do any research as to what is the customary rate of a matrimony attorney in your district?

2) Assuming a monied spouse with a $100,000 a year spouse and non-monied spouse with a $50,000 job how can they afford to pay 2 $15,000 retainer fees as your bill mandates?

3) Did your office do any research to quantify the RATE ORDINARILY AND CUSTOMARILY CHARGED BY THE a court appointed custody or business evaluator?

4) Is your office aware that a typical custody evaluator in New York charges $250/hour, more than double what most psychologists would get in private practice? Are you aware that custody evaluators typically demand payments of $7,000 cash, up front, before they will even begin an evaluation?

5) Is your office aware that New York now provides more screening to substitute teachers than we do to the custody evaluators appointed by the court?

6) is your office aware of any registration process by which a forensic evaluator would register their credentials with NY State?

7) Has your office considered that there are no penalties for lying on the Statement of Net Worth that a judge would supposedly use as a strong basis for awarding counsel fees?

Has your office considered that the Statement of Net Worth does not make litigants list wealthy friends or family members who may be paying attorneys fees as is frequently the case in cases where civil rights are violated?

9) Has your office considered that New York State does not require anything as basic as a credit report to verify a Statement of Net Worth?

10) Is your office aware of the rates of a typical legal guardian in your district?

I am writing a larger report on this issue and I hope that at the completion of my report you will allow me to present it to you or your staff. The bottom line is that New York is violating the civil rights of it's people with faulty legislation and it is time that this ends or that New York be brought to justice for all of the children it has ripped away from parents who can't afford representation.

Filed under: Custody, Legal Cost Control Tips 2 Comments

5Mar/100

Sharing a House During Divorce, Possible?

Talking to another couple too broke to have separate places and will have to work out a house sharing agreement. I know of few successful arrangement like this that have worked? How can you be separate if you share the same space?

I've heard of week on/week off, basement/bedroom, splitting days and more, but I don't know of any of these arrangements that lasted more than a few weeks. Interested to hear any different experiences if this can work.

Filed under: Custody, General Divorce Issues No Comments

18Feb/100

Hope for a parent whose parental rights were ripped away by NY State

Today my friend who has been banned from seeing, talking - except on speaker phone with mother listening and one way call, emailing, texting, driving by, seeing in school, seeing in camp or ANYTHING INVOLVING HIS CHILDREN, has gotten a second chance. After many years a new judge on his case has appointed a new legal guardian after one of the children demanded on her own accord to see the judge, obtain a lawyer and see her father. An act of amazing courage in the face of a justice system that is corrupt and poisonous.

NY State committed the ultimate crime against my friend, they ripped his children out of his life. They allowed an angry spouse with a blank check to exact revenge. She spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars and he was penniless and had to defend himself in a custody trial where the penalty was losing his children completely. This is no Judge Judy bullshit penalty, this is the real shit. This isn't Iran or China, this is the good old USA, New York, savagely ripping children away from a parent because he was too poor to defend against a wealthy and angry adversary.

Was he a convicted or accused criminal? No. Was there ever a criminal investigation into any behavior in 15 years of marriage? No. Any history of sexual abuse? No. Any history of domestic violence? No. Police ever called to house during marriage? No. Were the children being hit? No. Were they in the domestic violence unit of court? No. Was he rich and manipulative with money? No, she had a huge inheritance, he was broke. Was he a drug user? No Was he an alcoholic? No. What was he then? There must be something you say......Of course, there is always something....... wrong. Not in NY matrimony court. He is a quirky guy, a loving father and he had an affair with a woman whom he fell in love with (yes, still together years later).

NY Divorce court is the wild west of the court system. A place where the constitution is flushed down the toilet as courts will enforce religion, even mandating religious observances. A place where there is no due process and people are handled criminal punishments while having not committed a crime nor been tried with any type of due process. But worst of all it is a place that won't change because everyone is afraid of it. Politicians, Attorney General's, District Attorneys, etc. It falls under no one's jurisdiction and it is a place where predatory lawyers are stealing hundreds of millions of dollars a years from unprotected, vulnerable people in bad situations.

In this case, and in many cases in NY there is nothing measurable that causes these situations except one party has an open purse and lazy NY judges laugh watching their buddy lawyers making hundreds of thousands of the suckers. Meanwhile poor children stuck in abusive homes with criminals, severe mental illness, overt drug abusers and much worse wait for years for NY to help, if they ever help at all.

NY State laws force judges to decide full custody and the party willing to spend the most will almost always prevail in NY. Furthermore, a vindictive parent with money to spend can have parental rights removed for vague reasons by unaccountable forensic psychologists who write reports bound to ZERO legal standards and no peer review - even when the penalty is LOSING ACCESS TO YOUR CHILDREN. This is not paranoid shit, this really happens and it doesn't happen to bad people. In fact most bad people have more parental rights than the good person who can't defend themselves against an adversary willing to spend.

In any case, enough ranting. No, I'm not paranoid and I'm not crazy, but the state of things in NY Matrimony courts are and they must change. I wish my friend the best of luck, the truth will prevail.

Filed under: Custody, General Divorce Issues No Comments

11Feb/100

The myth of full custody in New York

In New York parties that can't settle are pitted against each other as they must both claim full custody since broken NY doesn't award joint custody. The fight for full custody in EXTREMELY expensive if neither party will concede to full custody. If there aren't CLEAR CUT cases of child abuse, sexual abuse, violence or extreme behavioral issues the fight for full custody is an entire waste of money in NY and should be avoided. If your spouse can convince people that they are quasi-normal, they hold down a job, they take care of kids responsibilities, they pay bills - you are going to have a huge uphill battle.

My personal, non-lawyer advice is to pursue joint custody. There are only a few spheres of decision in NY, primarily about health and education, though lawyers can divide these spheres a lot. Joint Custody with final say by a parent gives you the same net effects as full custody without the ridiculous expense and acrimony for all parties. Avoid the full custody scam of NY, it will be incredibly expensive and may not yield the results you think.

Filed under: Custody, General Divorce Issues, Legal Cost Control Tips No Comments

4Jan/100

See who NY Awards Full Custody To

Believe it or not, Melissa King, the woman featured in this article http://bit.ly/9170u2 was awarded full custody of her kids a few years ago. Believe it or not, she outspent her spouse. The father was bankrupt in the legal fight, she fought on and won. This is the wisdom of New York Supreme Court, imagine how many other families have been destroyed by such terrible divorce laws in New York.

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