The Family Law Center is no place for the faint of heart. The system is designed to destroy families both financially and emotionally. The adversarial process is no way to end a marriage, especially when children are involved. This is a story about those children.
I regularly attend the Downtown Pachyderm, which is an eclectic group of folks who attend from all areas of Harris County. Some of the regular attendees include court personnel and judges.
I am not sure when I first met Bob Lansink but, I remember liking him right away. After visiting with him, I learned that he was working with indigent folks who were seeking help in the family law arena. All I really knew was that Bob was involved with an organization called Fathers for Equal Rights and that organization had run afoul of a few the family law judges years before Bob’s involvement.
Fathers for Equal Rights (America Family Law) has been around for more than 35 years. In January 1, 2009, Bob Lansink assumed control of the organization in Houston. His goal was to see children not separated from their parents.
Fathers for Equal Rights – Mission Statement
The vision of Fathers for Equal Rights is that society will recognize the right and need of every child to have a healthy relationship with both parents, regardless of the status of their family structure.
The mission of Fathers for Equal Rights is to promote equitable family laws and practices that will respect the rights and needs of all family members.
When I first met Bob, he invited me to his office to discuss the Texas Legislature. I had not really followed the legislative process as it related to the family code; but, I knew that family law lawyers controlled that agenda. At the time, I remember thinking the last thing I personally needed to do was pick another fight in Austin with a group of folks I really did not like and a subject matter I hated. I say that because my ex-wife loves the family court and I spent a 109 days in the 309th family court before I figured out a way to put an end to her shenanigans – it was not pretty. I know there is one former judge who was glad to not see me and I him.
When Bob started his office and waiting room were small. He was beginning to feel his way through the process of helping children and families. The greatest need, of course, involved those individuals who could not afford counsel. Bob sought a way to help those being victimized by the family law process.
I think it is very important to understand that the Federal Government incentivizes the Texas Attorney General’s office to collect child support by paying the Attorney General’s office to collect. The Texas Attorney General’s office, through the FOCAS program, works with the Internal Revenue Service to obtain tax returns, intercept IRS refund checks, and other nefarious big brother activities. The Texas Attorney General’s office also monitors bank account balances, business records, and all sorts of other information in this process. The Feds have turned the Texas Attorney General’s office into one big collection agency with all kinds of powers that should frighten everyone. These efforts are directed to the non-custodial parent. Child support increases are done without a hearing or notification to the non-custodial parent through administrative writs.
In most circumstances, women are named the custodial parent. The Attorney General’s office would support custody to an incarcerated woman over a man. These are the rules and anything outside the rules or norm costs the noncustodial parent and the children.
Let me give you a typical situation that Bob’s organization deals with on a daily basis. This is a link to the KHOU news story about the mother who was choking and beating her children. CPS took the children away from the mother; but, they refused the allow the father to keep his son, one of the mother’s children, because he was not legally adjudicated as the father. The father does not have money for an attorney; but, he desperately wants to raise his son. Fathers for Equal Rights is providing free assistance (indirectly funded by Bob Lansink) to the father in order for the courts to legally recognize this man as the child’s father so he can then petition the court for custody of his son. Without this organization’s assistance, this child would have no contact with his father who simply wants to raise his own son. Unfortunately, this situation repeats itself daily at the courthouses in Harris County.
Clearly, an honest person can see that this system is set up for disaster on all levels and those most victimized, the children, remain without a lobby. Now, before you dismiss this story as a pro-dad hit piece, you should know that 40{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the people aided by Fathers for Equal Rights are women.
It is time to recognize that this flawed system involving the Federal Government and the Texas Attorney General is damaging children. Instead of acting as a collection agency, the Texas Attorney General should work towards allowing both parents to participate in the lives of their children. A parent should have a legally protected right to see and participate in their child’s life. And, a child should have a right to know both of their parents, except in cases of proven child abuse. This right should be the priority of government, courts, family law judges, and legislators.
The benefit of encouraging parental cooperation in the raising and rearing of children is priceless. No amount of money or child support collection is going to replace a child’s relationship with their parent. The memories of your dad or mom helping with school work, reading aloud, and coaching little league are what shapes us, builds character, and molds our identities. The benefits are obvious.
Greg Abbott has served as Texas Attorney General for over ten years. Without term limits, we have seen very little turnover in that office. With Abbott seeking higher office, Texas Attorney General candidates, over the next year and a half, will ask the public for their support. These candidates will appear before the Downtown Pachyderm asking for votes. Now is the time for the voters to ask these candidates about the money that the Texas Attorney General’s Office is receiving from the Federal Government. Now is the time for voters to ask questions about a court system that alienates children from their parents. As we have seen in Harris County, parental alienation kills.
Bob Lansink’s mission is to help children. Today, his organization takes an entire floor in a large office building in downtown Houston and will help 20,000 people this year. Bob’s experience in the software industry has allowed him to create a computer system that tracks and monitors the parents he is helping through the legal maze that is the family law courts. His computers text parents and tells them where they need to be and what to bring where. Bob takes no money from any government organization and funds the operation himself.
I will not embarrass him by saying how much he contributes annually to his mission but I think you get the idea.
The website is Fathers4EqualRights.org.