NOW and Family Law Issues:
Political Strategies

Involving politicians and officials in your fight to address bias in the courts can be difficult, as many will tell you they do not have any remedies available to them.

However, there are things they can do. Here are some suggestions for how you can take action and get your representatives involved in these issues:

• Call on your representatives in Congress to support investigations into funding for so-called responsible fatherhood programs at the federal and state level. See, for example, the request for support of investigation into Health and Human Services funding (PDF). Contact your representatives in Congress.
  
• Call on your local law enforcement to investigate any criminal activity of court officials (i.e. tampering with court documents and evidence).
  
• Call for the governor's office or attorney general to lead a study on the issue, or to appoint a task force to study it more.
  
• Call for the appropriate authority to investigate organizations that use federal funding to help fathers litigate custody away from mothers, in order to determine whether their activities are within the purview of the funds-granting agency, and are within the law.
  
• Call for statewide public hearings on family law injustice.
  
• Keep up with legislative proposals so that you can call for your legislator to introduce or support good legislation and oppose bad legislation.
  
• Call on state officials to audit your county's judges and any judges' groups or funds. In California, CA NOW worked with a state representative to get an audit of a "slush fund" set up by Los Angeles County judges who were taking money from attorneys and others to use for golf outings and other perks. It was successfully shut down.
  
• Become a citizen lobbyist and draft legislation, lobby for bills and educate your representatives!
• You can help draft legislation to fix problems in the court system, and to institute new policies to protect mothers and their children from abuse (see the legislative section of this website for examples of good and bad legislation). Contact a representative who you believe might be interested and come in with a plan for the language and strategy of the bill.
• Lobby for good legislation by writing, calling or going to the capitol to tell your representatives and others why the legislation is good and justified. Testify for the bill. Ask your representative (and others) to vote for the bill if it gets to the floor for a vote.
• Lobby against bad legislation by following "fathers' rights groups" websites and email lists to find out what bills they are working on. Present the committee that is holding the hearing with information opposing the legislation (see sample testimony on "joint custody" bills in the legislative section of this website). Testify against the bill. Ask your representative (and others) to vote against the bill if it gets to the floor.
• Educate your representatives by presenting them with information on the subject in general (not one individual case, but research and information on the problem as a whole). Send it to them, take information directly to their individuals offices or staff members, or hold a briefing for the whole legislature with a group that is supportive of the issues.

Resources:

• Sample letter requesting that members of Congress call for a federal investigation into the operations of Health and Human Services (HHS) (PDF)
• Sample press release on federal HHS investigation (PDF)
• Sample press release denouncing official's failure to protect women in family courts (PDF)

Learn more about the crisis in family courts from NOW Foundation.