November 4, 2004

Raising out-of-the-box equal protection and related arguments in child custody cases -- 41 class actions have been filed

The National Law Journal reports in its October 25, 2004 issue, page 4, intriguing arguments that have been raised in 41 class actions around the country:

"Fathers' rights advocates are pushing legislation and class actions across the country in an effort to correct what they see as a judicial bias that overwhelmingly awards custody to mothers." "Since last month, constitutional challenges have been filed as class actions in 41 states to assert divorced fathers' rights to equal custody of children."
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The article continues:

"[F]athers' rights groups claim that 84% of custodial parents are mothers. The pro se class actions filed in 41 states purport to represent 22 million fathers and 3 million mothers who have been denied equal access to their kids. An identical complaint was filed in federal courts in each state, said Torm Howse of the Indiana Civil Rights Council, a nonprofit fathers' rights group which is coordinating the effort."

You can go to the Council's site ( http://www.indianacrc.org ), obtain information about the class actions, including a listing of the states in which they have been filed ( http://www.indianacrc.org/classaction.html), and even view a 43-page sample complaint ( http://www.ffvisual.com/ncpshared/examples/TheMainComplaint.pdf ).

Posted by ajlevy at November 4, 2004 1:25 PM
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