Family Court Accountability Coalition

The Family Court Accountability Coalition engages in Judicial, Legislative and Executive Branch advocacy on behalf of socioeconomically disadvantaged family court stakeholders. According to the Judicial Council of California, 75 percent of family court litigants are self-represented because they cannot afford an attorney. Yet many courts cater to attorneys and the parties they are paid to represent, while denying the indigent meaningful and effective access to family court services.

Showing posts with label Judicial Council. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Former Sacramento Family Court Judge Tani Cantil-Sakauye Blamed for Statewide Court Corruption Problems

California court watchdog groups charge that the leadership of the state Judicial Council bears primary responsibility for a string of court scandals compiled in this video from the California Courts News YouTube Channel. An ABC News 10 investigation into misuse of the California Highway Patrol by the chief justice as a taxi and shopping service is included.

Indifference and incompetence by Judicial Council Chair Tani Cantil-Sakauye and senior management at the agency has resulted in an epidemic of court corruption in California, including a Los Angeles County court clerk accused of stealing $6,000 from people filing name changes, a case fixing scheme uncovered by the FBI in Orange County, and a massive, statewide traffic courts scandal.

Alleged Medi-Cal Billing Fraud Linked to California Courts

Supreme Court of California – Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye – Associate Justice Carol A. Corrigan – Associate Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar – Associate Justice Ming W. Chin – Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu – Associate Justice Mariano Cuellar – Associate Justice Leondra Kruger - Justice Cantil-Sakauye –California Supreme Court – Corruption – Judicial Misconduct – California Judicial Council - FBI Sacramento Division Special Agent in Charge Monica Miller Sacramento Field Office – Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert – United States Department of Justice Benjamin Wagner US Attorney for the Eastern District of California

Rehab-Racket: the Sequel

California's County-Level Judicial Branch Medicaid Oligarchy

The Family Court Accountability Coalition has published a special report by investigative reporter Ron Pierce. The report alleges systemic Medi-Cal fraud by family courts throughout California. To read the article, click here.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

California Supreme Court Corruption: Whistleblowers Charge Supreme Court Justices with Enabling Bias Against the Poor in Family Courts

California Supreme Court Justices Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Ming Chin, Leondra Kruger, Carol Corrigan, Goodwin Liu, Mariano Cuellar and Kathryn Werdegar are accused of enabling family court bias against financially disadvantaged and disabled "pro per" litigants who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

Institutionalized Socioeconomic Bias

California Supreme Court judges are ignoring and thereby enabling systemic bias against the poor in family courts throughout the state, Judicial Branch reform advocates have charged.

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and the state Judicial Council were engulfed in a nationwide firestorm of controversy when a report released by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that traffic courts throughout the state were trapping the poor in long cycles of poverty using fines, fees and driver license revocations.

Family court whistleblowers have catalogued examples showing that similar, institutionalized socioeconomic bias occurs in family courts, where more than 70 percent of court users cannot afford to hire an attorney. "This is a statewide epidemic of the same scale as the traffic courts scandal," said Ulf Carlsson, a whistleblower and former state employee. "Like they did in that debacle, the Supreme Court is playing deaf, dumb and blind to the problems."

Sacramento Family Court News, an online, nonprofit journalism organization recently published an investigative report compiling court scandals attributed to Judicial Council Chair Tani Cantil-Sakauye. To view the report, click here. Other sources of news and information about socioeconomic bias in state courts include the California Supreme Court & Judicial Branch Report Tumblr, and the Judicial Misconduct Facebook Community.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye Starves Courts of Funding, Spends Millions on Limo and Security Service for High Court Judges

Judicial Council Chair Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye Caught on Camera Using Highway Patrol as Personal Taxi Service

3rd District Court of Appeal – Sacramento Justice Vance W. Raye – Justice Jonathan K. Renner - Justice Coleman A. Blease – Justice Ronald B. Robie – Justice William J. Murray Jr. – Justice George W. Nicolson – Justice M. Kathleen Butz – Justice Elena J. Duarte – Justice Harry E. Hull Jr. – Justice Louis R. Mauro – Justice Andrea Lynn Hoch – Third District Court of Appeal California - Judge Jaime R. Roman – Judge Matthew J. Gary – Judge Thadd A. Blizzard – Judge James M. Mize – Judge Peter J. McBrien – Judge Kevin R. Culhane – Judge Laurie M. Earl – Judge Steve White – Judge Bunmi O. Awoniyi – Judge Eugene L. Balonon - Scott P. Harmon Commissioner - Danny L. Haukedalen Commissoner – Judge Jane Ure -Supreme Court of California – Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye – Goodwin Liu – Marvin R. Baxter – Ming W. Chin – Kathryn M. Werdegar – Joyce L. Kennard – Carol A. Corrigan – Mariano-Florentino Cuellar – Leondra Kruger California Supreme Court

Tani Cantil-Sakauye caught in the act by News10 in Sacramento.

ABC News10 in Sacramento has caught California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in the act of using the California Highway Patrol as a personal taxi and security service at taxpayer expense.

Emmy Award winning News10 investigative reporter Thom Jensen and his photographer tailed Cantil-Sakauye and her personal, armed CHP officer and driver to her home in a gated community in the Sacramento area.

As the video records, Jensen received an inhospitable reception from the chief justice and her CHP valet. At minute 1:40 of the clip, former 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Arthur Scotland is caught on camera telling a lie to cover for Cantil-Sakauye - his long-time former colleague from Sacramento County Superior Court, the Third District Appellate Court, and the Deukmejian administration...

Click here to read the complete article at Supreme Court of California News.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Epic FAIL: McGeorge Law School Professor John E.B. Myers Attributes Lack of Family Court Justice to Judicial Council Forms

Sacramento Judge James Mize Apologist Attempts Diversion from Divorce Corp Documentary Scandal

Special Guest Editorial: Opinion by Cathy Cohen

State Bar of California Board of Trustees – President Patrick M. Kelly – Vice President Luis J. Rodrigez – Treasurer Gretchen M. Nelson – State Bar of California Office of the Chief Trial Counsel - attorney Jayne Kim Chief Trial Counsel – attorney Joseph R. Carlucci Deputy Chief Trial Counsel – Patsy J. Cobb Deputy Chief Trial Counsel – FLEXCOM – Family Law Section State of California – State Bar Family Law Section – attorney Mark Ressa San Ramon Chair – attorney Andrew M. Cain San Jose Vice Chair – attorney Michael J. Kretzmer CFLS Beverly Hills Secretary – attorney Yasmine S. Mehment CFLS San Francisco Legislation Chair – attorney Naghmeh Bashar CFLS – attorney Vanessa Kirker-Wright CFLS – attorney Robert “Paul” Bonnar Pleasant Hill – attorney John A. Lazor CFLS Los Angeles – attorney Laurel B. Brauer Irvine – attorney John E. Manoogian CFLS Walnut Creek – attorney Raymond R. Goldstein Culver City – attorney Ana M. Storey Los Angeles – attorney Ronald Scott Granberg CFLS Salinas – attorney Edward J. Thomas CFLS Bakersfield – attorney Diane M. Goodman Encino – attorney Deborah Hannah Wald San Francisco – attorney Minouche D. Kandel CFLS San Francisco -

McGeorge School of Law Professor John Myers blames
family court injustice on too many Judicial Council forms.

In a laughably inaccurate editorial published by the Sacramento Bee, McGeorge School of Law family law professor John E.B. Myers redefined the meaning of the out-of-touch, ivory tower academic. Among other clueless assertions, Myers made the epic LOL, demonstrably false claim that:

“Sacramento’s family court, under the wise leadership of Judge James Mize, serves the community well.”

Family court watchdogs have collected and catalogued overwhelming evidence that Judge Mize provides anything but “wise leadership,” and that the court – which operates essentially as an organized, criminal enterprise – serves only a select, exclusive group of judge pro tem lawyers. The community at large, and especially those financially disadvantaged family court users without an attorney, are subjected to second-class status under an illegal two-track system of justice.

Commission on Judicial Performance Director Victoria B. Henley Paid $194,000 per Year by Taxpayers

Victoria Henley, Director of the Commission on Judicial Performance is paid substantially more than the governor of California.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Resources for Self-Represented Family Court Litigants

The Judicial Council of California provides reports, infomation and other data about self-represented litigants in California. This link provides the following list:

California Court Users Prefer Court Decisions Be Made Through Fair Process

According to a 2005 survey [pdf] of the public, the strongest predictor by far of whether members of the public approve or have confidence in the courts was:

Having a sense that court decisions are made through processes that are fair.

Between November 2004 and February 2005, over 2,400 California adults were surveyed regarding their:

Bureau of State Audits Elaine M. Howle State Auditor California, J. Sharon Reilly C.E.A., Doug D. Cordiner Chief Deputy State Auditor, Donna L. Neville Staff Counsel, Steven B. Russo Staff Counsel, Scott Baxter Staff Counsel, Denise L. Vose C.E.A., John F. Collins C.E.A., Joanne Quarles Principal Auditor, Debbie Meador C.E.A., Michael S. Tilden Principal Auditor, John R. Baier Principal Auditor, Karen L. McKenna Principal Auditor, Michelle J. Baur Principal Auditor, Raymond G. Parks Principal Auditor, S. Ramirez-Ridgeway Staff Counsel, James Sandberglarsen Principal Auditor California Bureau of State Audits

Knowledge about the courts and the sources of that knowledge
Perceived and experienced barriers to court access
Experiences as jurors, litigants, or consumers of court information
Expectations for what the courts should be doing
Sense of the accessibility, fairness and efficiency of the courts

The study was commissioned by the Administrative Office of the Courts on behalf of the Judicial Council of California, and the results were published [pdf] in September 2005. We'll cover more of the study results in future posts.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Orange County Judge Admits Domestic Violence Laws Misused

In a recent Judicial Council publication, an Orange County judge inadvertently acknowledged that domestic violence laws are misued.

New Report from the Judicial Council of California

Domestic violence laws serve an important function, but here at the Family Court Accountability Coalition we are contacted regularly by self-represented family court litigants who have provided us with court records and other conclusive evidence that they have been falsely accused of domestic violence - almost always in cases where the opposing party is represented by an attorney.

FCAC has documented that to gain a tactical advantage in a divorce, many attorneys encourage their clients to make false spousal abuse accusations. An accusation of domestic violence can result in the reduction or elimination of temporary and post-judgment support obligations, one-sided child custody and visitation orders, and an inequitable division of community property.

One Party Self-Represented In More Than 75 Percent of Family Law Cases

Key Statistic Omitted from Elkins Task Force Final Report

Task Force Whitewashes Critical Statistic

In many California communities, more than 75 percent of family court cases have at least one self-represented party, according to the Elkins Task Force Final Report and Recommendations [pdf], released this month by the Judicial Council.

"Given the complexity of family law issues, why do people represent themselves? All too often they have no choice...What is at stake in the family court process are long lasting decisions that affect people's most fundamental and important aspects of their lives."

What the report conveniently doesn't mention, and apparently whitewashes is the number of family court cases in which one side has an attorney and the other doesn't. Based on our research and anecdotal evidence, that is the critical statistic.