Giving parents equal parenting time by law ~ Washington State

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - Page updated at 04:13 PM

Giving parents equal parenting time by law

By Bill Harrington

Special to The Times

For the third time in 22 years, Washington state is leading the nation in family law reform. This time, the report is called the Residential Time Summary Report prepared by the state Office of the Administrator for the Courts. This is a first-in-the-nation compilation of post-divorce breakdown of parenting time for children, mothers and fathers. The numbers are collected case-by-case and county-by-county.

Amazingly, 46 percent of children of divorce, statewide, are ordered to spend a minimum of 35 percent parenting time with their biological fathers. Parenting time is broken down by large percentages, and meaningful shared parenting starts in the range of 30-35 percent. This is about 300 percent better results than anyone could have expected from the time the Parenting Act was first approved. If there ever was any doubt, Washington state is now an official shared-parenting state for families impacted by parental separation.

In 1987, Washington required divorcing parents to detail parenting schedules in Parenting Plan documents that are filed with the court. Over 30 states have adopted this family law reform. Again, in 1991, Washington Department of Social and Health Services first developed and used the Paternity Affidavit for unwed, never-married, fathers. Staffers were pleasantly shocked and surprised with how forthcoming fathers were to provide financial information used to help create child-support orders.

However, the question has always been placed — how much post-divorce parenting time are children of divorce actually spending with their male parents? Now we see some actual results statewide and county-by-county.

The King County and Pierce County numbers are higher than the statewide average at 50 percent with Snohomish close by at 49 percent. The two highest counties are Whatcom at 66 percent and Skagit at 59 percent. Yakima County comes in the lowest at 28 percent.

The summary report and study was advocated for by fathers' organizations and shared-parenting advocates as a way of documenting why an official shared-parenting law is needed in Washington. Sen. Jim Kastama introduced Senate Bill 5342 addressing this issue but it has not moved out of committee.

The 46 percent is a great number. However, there are probably another 30 percent where the fathers and some mothers arbitrarily are restricted to the typical every-other-weekend. In these cases, the fathers and mothers with limited schedules actually feel more like aunts and uncles than meaningfully involved parents. The children are the biggest losers. The new law is needed for these other parents to avoid decisions that are strictly perceived winners and losers.

The report statistic that rings the loudest and truest is that 93 percent of the final decisions are by agreement of the parents. This means that good mothers and fathers are operating with one reality most in mind: These children had two involved parents before separation and this should be the end result as well. These good parents are sending society and our courthouse officials a loud message.

Unfortunately, our elected superior-court judges, appointed court commissioners and family law lawyers seem stuck in 1987. This is the time before the positive and encouraging language of the Parenting Act was approved and the Tender Years Doctrine was still operational.

Children of divorce are our most fragile social statistics: over 70 percent of high-school dropouts and pregnant teen girls come from fatherless homes as well as the 80-85 percent of male teens in juvenile justice centers and more than 90 percent of men in prison, all from fatherless homes. Society has paid a huge price to keep fathers away from their children. Now we see good dads fighting to stay involved and our children are better off for this effort.

The time has come for children of divorce to be guaranteed continuing parental involvement such as the children in the above numbers coming from homes where both parents are legally fit. It is time to stop divorcing children from one of their parents, most often the father. We can do better.

Bill Harrington from Pierce County was a commissioner with the US Commission on Child and Family Welfare.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

New law could make fathers' rights come smoother in Minnesota

Kudos to Mr. Mahoney and his battle in MN to get the laws changed. Please note I have deleted some duplicate comments below.MJM

Dad tells of spending $30,000 to win time with his kids

By Erin Carlyle

City Pages

published: February 04, 2009

• Nick Vlcek

  

  Panelist Molly Olson says the study group seemed biased from the start

• 

  Rep. Tim Mahoney

Joel Lombard carries a stack of photographs, half an inch thick, in his billfold. In one, a ten-year-old boy leans over a hockey stick, grinning proudly in his bright red jersey. In another, a seven-year-old grips her soccer ball. These are Lombard's children, and over the past two years he has spent just under $30,000 in a custody battle to make sure he remained in their lives.

"I'm a great dad," Lombard says emphatically, his hazel eyes bright, as he sits in a booth at a greasy spoon in Inver Grove Heights. "I might be a bad business owner or a bad husband, but I'm a great dad."

When Lombard and the children's mother, Carol, decided to divorce two years ago, he was certain that the negotiations over the kids would go smoothly and result in a 50-50 split. He was shocked when his ex said she wanted sole custody.

Lombard's lawyer advised him not to move out of the house because that might disadvantage him in the fight. So Lombard lived in the basement for 11 months, until a judge awarded both parents equal time with the kids and ordered Lombard to move out.

But the struggle wasn't over. Lombard's ex-wife requested a custody evaluation from Washington County. The result was the same: equal time with the kids for both mom and dad. Next came a divorce trial, where the custody issue was finally settled.

Ultimately, Lombard got what he wanted. But he's not happy about how much time—and money—it cost him. "All you're doing is pissing away a college fund," Lombard says of dads who go through protracted legal fights over their children. "If he wants 50-50, he shouldn't have to fight for it. Because that's what's best for the kids."

In Minnesota family courts, judges decide what's best for the kids on a case-by-case basis. But fathers' groups are pushing to change the law so that judges must favor shared parenting time, known as joint physical custody. Minnesota would become one of two states with such a legal preference.

Historically, the state's courts have not favored this arrangement because of concerns that shuttling between parents could be disruptive for a child. Custody often went to mothers, who tended to be the primary caregivers. But now, fathers are more involved. "I think in some ways it's a matter of the judicial system catching up with changes in society," says Melissa Froehle, policy and program director at the Minnesota Fathers & Families Network in St. Paul.

Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul) has made it his mission to change the law. Divorced twice, Mahoney paid through the nose to get joint physical custody. "But I thought everybody did that," Mahoney says. "It wasn't, 'Oh, I'm a wounded divorced father and I feel slighted.'"

He says conversations with his constituents convinced him that the law should change. Dozens of men have told him they pay child support but find it difficult to visit their children because of poor relations with the mother, he says. "They don't give a damn about the money. Mostly what they want to do is see their kids."

Over the past five years, Mahoney has introduced bills to change the law. His legislation has included an exception for victims of domestic violence, but advocates for battered women remain unconvinced.

Last year, Mahoney proposed a study group to look at the effect of changing the law. Mahoney's bill passed last spring after Rep. Michael Paymar (DFL-St. Paul) tacked it onto another piece of legislation.

In August, the study group met for the first time. Members included advocates for victims of domestic violence, parents, and fathers, as well as family law attorneys, academics, and two judges.

The study group reviewed academic research on divorce and custody and heard from people on both sides of the debate. The Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, several anti-domestic violence groups, and the Minnesota State Bar Association's Family Law Section opposed changing the law, and fathers' advocacy groups favored it.

While there were more than enough people willing to give their opinions on the idea, the study group faced a paucity of information specific to Minnesota. There are no studies that document if fathers are actually being treated unfairly in court. The state's only data shows that joint physical custody decisions increased from 6 percent in 1986 to 23 percent in 1999.

After four months of meetings, the panel could only recommend to the Legislature that more Minnesota data be collected and the issue studied further. Mahoney and co-sponsor Saltzman were sorely disappointed.

"Certainly I think that the deck was set," Mahoney says. "I think there were a number of people that were very uncomfortable with the idea going in." He estimates that about 70 percent of the panel was initially against joint physical custody.

Panelist Molly Olson founded the Center for Parental Responsibility, a group that advocates for joint physical custody. She says study group membership seemed biased from the start. "People are either from organizations that have opposed this, or have opposed this individually," she says, "or they don't work with fit fathers."

But other panelists said the group was open-minded and fair. The problem was not bias, but rather a lack of information, says study group member Jeff Edleson, a professor at the University of Minnesota who researches domestic violence. "There were grievances of both moms and dads who were concerned about their cases," he says. "What I wanted to see, and I didn't see, was any data."

One of the judges on the panel, Heidi Schellhas of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, also found the lack of information frustrating. "Shouldn't we figure out whether there is a problem, and if there is a problem, what is it?"

But Mahoney says the issue needs to be addressed, and soon. "My intent this year," he says, "is to move this bill forward."

Comments:

Flase Allegations of Sexual Impropriety against Police Officers

False claims of a sexual nature not only occur in DV, against innocent males, but in situations involving law enforcement. Watch the video to see how it can happen, the potential consequences to the target and how the facts can set you free. Courts issue restraining orders holus bolus without any regard for the truth. They put innocent men in jail leading some to suicide.