David Iversen of WTNH Channel 8 reports as follows:
"(WTNH) — Alex Seretny knew he wanted to be a part of the military.
“It was always something I was curious to myself about. Can I do this? After 9/11, I said, I want to do this.”
After three tours of duty in Afghanistan, he received a bronze star and a purple heart.
He is, by all accounts, a war hero.
That time overseas cost him at home. Seretny’s marriage failed. When he came back to Connecticut, another battle began.
“We were released on a Friday and Monday morning I showed up in a courtroom,” said Seretny.
On a soldiers salary, Seretny could not afford an attorney. A family court judge had a solution to the custody dispute: Assign a Guardian Ad Litem.
A Guardian Ad Litem is a special investigator assigned to family court cases to represent the best interest of the child. In essence, A GAL’s job is to review the family life of both mom and dad and recommend to the family court where the best place for the child or children is.
According to statistics provided by the Judicial Branch, Guardian Ad Litems have been assigned to five percent of the family court cases. 1,234 assignments among the 23,500 family court cases, which excludes restraining order cases.
Seretny was charged $300 an hour for his GAL. He never tallied up his total bill.
“Honestly, I don’t want to put the numbers together because I don’t want to know what that number might be.”
The number is almost $4,000 between Seretny and his ex-wife. According to bills provided by Seretny, the hours charged are for writing letters, listening to voicemails, a single meeting with each parent and court preparation.
“It’s frustrating,” said Seretny. “It was supposed to be a representative for my daughter. That did not happen.”..."
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Only 384 out of the original list of 1000 GALs they said were available are actually qualified to do the job and that has only come out now? Well, all I can say is that goes to show the overall environment of misinformation that permeates the CT Judicial Branch.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, this report dramatically understates the magnitude of the corruption. The media focuses on a war hero who has only been hosed to the tune of $4k by a GAL who never saw or spoke to the kid? There are parents out there who have had much larger sums stolen, all with the knowledge and approval of the judges. The numbers the other parents in the story mention are just staggering.
ReplyDeleteWe should all be remembering this reporter's name for the upcoming session. At least we now have an ear. God Bless him. He's the first one in the press to take these matters seriously. Hope he's here to stay.
ReplyDeleteWe already know that family court judges are appointing their friends and then ordering families to pay them outrageous sums for non-work and threatening to incarcerate them when they can't pay. The problem is that no one with any power wants to do anything to stop this.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be amazed by the power of the press. We just need on reporter on the issue and to stick with it to start getting those in power to listen and start making change.
DeleteNow, here is good press:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/18/judge-bias-corrupts-court-cases
But...we have to ask why does it take a foreign news organization to report what we should be publishing here in America's best news media?