{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "Shira Cole",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/users/shira-cole/profile",
"title": "Stop HB 2237, Stop Punishing Safe Parents",
"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/311/077/normal/Screen_Shot_2024-01-30_at_12.02.28_PM.png",
"description": "Parents are under attack in Washington State, we need your help to stop courts from removing custody from safe and law abiding parents in Family Court. HB 2237 is not based on scientific research and several Organizations oppose HB 2237 after doing their own analysis: Family Violence Appellate Project, Her Harbor, People Advancing Youth Equity and Safety, Jewish Family Service, and National Safe Parents Organization. The issue: HB 2237 completely rewrites, lengthens and makes more complicated the high-risk custody statute RCW 26.09.191. The only beneficial language in this bill is optional–while it contains a plethora of harmful language that opens the doorway to the divorce industrial complex to bankrupt families, remove children from good parents for completely legal and safe actions and place children in potentially dangerous situations. HB 2237’s overall makeup expands the courts ability to make safe law-abiding parents endure costly and unnecessary services, often in excess of tens of thousands of dollars, in order to see their kids. First it expands the courts ability to take custody from a parent, with broadening its new definition of Abusive Use of Conflict to any action that “misuses conflict.” Second, it allows the court to bar any contact with that parent until they complete expensive "treatment" for "misusing conflict." Third, courts will appoint more expensive professionals who can in turn recommend more professionals to a case, perpetuating the harmful cycle of the divorce industrial complex. Fourth, it allows Abusive Use of Conflict to outweigh more dangerous factors like domestic abuse. HB 2237 delves into your personal life and puts both parents under a microscope and infringes on the parents’ constitutional right to litigate and appeal their case. First, with the overly vague definition of Abusive Use of Conflict, a parent is damned if they do and damned if they don’t as any safe law abiding parenting action can be tagged as “misusing conflict.” Second, a parent is discouraged from good faith litigation, as any court action can be construed as "misusing conflict." Third, the bill removes the current statute's several provisions that enable the party to appeal a dangerous or unnecessarily restrictive custody order, leaving that judge with no oversight and that parent with no corrective pathway to protect and/or see their child. HB 2237 gives judicial officers a blank check to do whatever they want. Where family court has been described as a sales pitch, a popularity contest, or an auction where children are auctioned off to the wealthier party; we have a duty to enforce strict requirements so the system cannot be further manipulated. The only people who will benefit from HB 2237 are the expensive professionals who will be appointed and the parties who have the means to buy off the court through their attorneys and professionals. Do not be fooled, the institutions designed to protect parents have aligned themselves with the divorce industrial complex and are the ones behind this bill. Please help us in protecting safe parents and children by helping us fight HB 2237. Thank you.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-hb-2237-stop-punishing-safe-parents"
}