Saturday, January 29, 2011

Judge tries to limit trial to shrink's report

I had this exchange with the family court judge on Jan. 12, while I was trying to cross-examine my ex-wife:
Q. Do you think that I should be permitted to see the
art?
THE COURT: Okay. If I could redirect our
focus. Dr. Perlmutter's report was prepared and delivered
to the Court on May 14th of 2010. I believe that the
Court ordered -- it was prepared or at least printed
April 30th of 2010. And I believe the court order did not
go back three years. And if we're talking about an art --
an activity or a breach of parent communication --
MR. AngryDad: No, no. I'm not alleging any
breach of any court order. I'm simply trying to determine
what role she wants for the father of her kids.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. AngryDad: That's what I'm trying to
determine here.
THE COURT: Our focus is more --
MR. AngryDad: It seems to me --
THE COURT: Okay. Her --
MR. AngryDad: I'll tell you exactly my
concerns. Yeah, my daughter won an art contest. I never
even found out about it.
THE COURT: Did you ask her --
MR. AngryDad: Okay. Yes.
THE COURT: -- what she was doing in school?
MR. AngryDad: I did.
THE COURT: Okay. It's not my job to ask you
questions.
MR. AngryDad: I understand. But I'm asking
[AngryMom] what role she want -- I'm trying to determine what
role she wants in my kids' life.
THE COURT: Her --
MR. AngryDad: That's the purpose of these
questions here.
THE COURT: Her desire for whatever role she
would like you to play is not the relevant question here.

MR. AngryDad: It's not?
THE COURT: No.
MR. AngryDad: Really?
THE COURT: Really.
MR. AngryDad: Okay. You could have fooled me.
I thought this was a case between [AngryMom] and me. And I
thought the kids were supposed to be raised by --
according to the wishes of their parents.
And I thought if [AngryMom] had some concerns about
my parenting practices, then she should express those and
express those to me.
And our kids should be raised according to our
wishes, not Ken Perlmutter's wishes.
THE COURT: As an overarching ethical question,
I tend to agree with you that parents should decide how to
raise their children.
As to the reason why we're here in
court, is specifically because you are challenging
Dr. Perlmutter's report.
So unfortunately, it's not as broad as perhaps
common sense might dictate.

MR. AngryDad: Well, I'm challenging more than
his report. I mean, I'm looking for custody of my kids.
THE COURT: Right. And much of that has been
litigated previously and we're not going to tread the same
ground.
MR. AngryDad: The custody hasn't been
litigated.
This astounded me. It is a custody trial. The judge acts as if the wishes of the parents are irrelevant, and the only issue is whether to adopt the dictates of the psychologist.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hundreds of drug and alcohol rehabs have found ways to attract attention to themselves as to why they are the best in what they do. There are, however, six 'facts' that a good drug and alcohol rehab will not tell you.anger evaluation