Category: NPO in the media

Amid attention surrounding National Parental Alienation Awareness Day on Monday, April 25, including Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’shonorable decision to recognize the day, National Parents Organization encourages lawmakers nationwide to join the movement to turn shared parenting from the exception to the norm when parents divorce or separate.

“Far too often, the courts order sole custody to one parent after a bitter, winner-take-all custody battle. Because the non-custodial parent often has so little time with the child, the winning parent is empowered to poison the child’s mind against the ‘absent’ parent. This creates heartbreak for child and parent,” Dr. Ned Holstein, MD, Founder and Board Chair of National Parents Organization, said. “With shared parenting, it is difficult for anyone to turn the child against a parent with whom the child experiences frequent loving care. Shared parenting decreases these tragic cases of parental alienation. I urge legislators in all states to back shared parenting.”

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Amid attention surrounding National Parental Alienation Awareness Day on Monday, April 25, including Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s  honorable decision to recognize the day,  National Parents Organization encourages lawmakers nationwide to join the movement to turn shared parenting from the exception to the norm when parents divorce or separate.

“Far too often, the courts order sole custody to one parent after a bitter, winner-take-all custody battle. Because the non-custodial parent often has so little time with the child, the winning parent is empowered to poison the child’s mind against the ‘absent’ parent. This creates heartbreak for child and parent,” Dr. Ned Holstein, MD, Founder and Board Chair of National Parents Organization, said. “With shared parenting, it is difficult for anyone to turn the child against a parent with whom the child experiences frequent loving care. Shared parenting decreases these tragic cases of parental alienation. I urge legislators in all states to back shared parenting.”

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Gov. Rick Scott failed — badly — when he vetoed SB668, the Legislature’s latest effort to reform alimony and child custody post-divorce. He failed the children of Florida; he failed the parents of Florida; he failed women; he failed men. Apparently, the only group he didn’t fail is the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar.

SB668 was a moderate bill. Nothing in it would have radically altered Florida law. Under it, divorcing spouses could continue to count on alimony commensurate with the length of their marriage and their earning power. Only alimony that was automatically permanent was done away with.

More important was the shared-parenting provision of the bill. It required judges in child custody cases to begin with the premise that children benefit from seeing each parent equally. But judges still would have discretion to decide parenting time according to the 20 factors that already guide those decisions. The best interests of the child would have been, as it is now, the desired outcome of every parenting time decision. Opponents repeatedly claimed that SB668 “mandated 50/50 parenting.” That was frankly untrue.

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Gov. Rick Scott on Friday vetoed the single most contentious bill from the 2016 Legislature, a major overhaul of alimony law that would have allowed equal time-sharing of child custody in divorces.

Scott’s veto ends weeks of suspense and intense lobbying campaigns on both sides during which more than 11,000 calls and e-mails bombarded his office, with supporters ahead by a 4-1 margin.

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With National Ex-Spouse Day – which just passed on April 14 – meant to “be a positive day of reflection and to encourage people to release anger or resentment,” as reported in USA Today, the National Parents Organizationencourages states across the country to continue the national trend to reform our family courts by enacting shared parenting legislation after parents separate or divorce.

In the last year, more than 20 states have introduced legislation that would treat parents more equally in instances of divorce while also providing children what they most want and need – as close to equal time as possible with both their parents. Florida and Missouri are two most recent examples, with Missouri’s legislature advancing a shared parenting bill in the Senate and Florida passing a bill that now awaits the Governor’s signature.

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Too often, the only ones who exit the courtroom feeling like winners are attorneys, who routinely collect tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees for a single case. It comes as no surprise, then, that these attorneys – leadership of the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar – are opposing SB 668. This highly influential and affluent group of divorce attorneys make their living off our broken system, and with that in mind, they’ve paid lobbyists to work against child-friendly legislation. Given this clear conflict of interest, Gov. Scott should see these lawyers and their lobbyists for what they are: wolves in sheep’s clothing.

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Two opposing groups merged into one loud protest Tuesday at Gov. Rick Scott’s office.

Opponents and supporters of SB 668 wanted to advise Scott on the bill, which sets new guidelines for alimony and child custody cases. But Scott was out of town.

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Generally, men pay alimony, and women are granted primary custody. The ongoing debate over alimony generally falls along the same lines. When feuding protestors filled the governor’s office Tuesday, predictably, tempers ran high. Debate devolved into shouting matches, going head to head as they waited for a meeting with the governor’s staff.

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Sitting on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk is a contentious bill setting new guidelines for alimony and child custody arrangements. Of the 272 bills the Florida Legislature approved in 2016, SB 668 was the final one sent to Scott.

Critics argue the proposal betrays women and hurts children. Supporters say the legislation updates alimony and custody laws to reflect changing social mores, is gender neutral and will reduce the need for litigation.

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