2021 03 17 – Re-play of FAN-PAC Legal Symposium

Saving Fatherhood Podcast

https://youtu.be/kkcb9_ifbwM

On March 5th, 2021 FAN-PAC of New Jersey (www.fanpacnj.org/donate) held a legal symposium followed by a question and answer session with Attorney Steven M. Resnick, Esq., a partner at Ziegler, Resnick & Epstein. He is a matrimonial and family lawyer and one of New Jersey’s trailblazing practitioners in custody matters and the area of parental alienation.

A highly skilled litigator, Mr. Resnick handles all aspects of matrimonial and family law relating to divorce, equitable distribution, palimony, annulment, high net worth, pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements, business valuations, real estate, domestic violence, custody and visitation, paternity, estate/will contests, judgment/agreement modification, appeals, N.J. Supreme Court maters, trial, and case second opinions, among others. Mr. Resnick has also served as co-counsel for numerous out-of-state matters.

Mr. Resnick recently broke new legal ground in New Jersey on the subject of parental alienation and has argued before the Appellate Division of New Jersey and New Jersey Supreme Court on many other matrimonial and family law issues, as well.

Below are the questions from the Q&A period. If you have a question about this event please reach out to [e-mail]. If you are interested in learning more about FAN PAC or supporting their efforts please use the following links.

https://www.fanpacnj.org/donate

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My case and many others in New Jersey would indicate the family court system has failed to meet its obligation as noted in 9:2-4, ‘The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the public policy of this State to assure minor children of frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage and that it is in the public interest to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities of child rearing’

In your opinion, is the family court functioning as it should in high conflict custody cases?

If so please discuss how? If not, what does the system need to meet this objective?

It cost me $230k in legal fees to defend my right and obligation to maintain a relationship and support my children. Once the money ran out so did my lawyer. Is a lawyers job only to vigorously defend me when there is money?

What are the professional conflicts a family law attorney must weigh? Is a lawyer an officer of the court first? Then represent their clients interests?

Do family court judges have too much discretion? How can I get a court order enforced? I have been trying to for years but, they run me around in an expensive circle.

Can you sue the court /judge for PTSD Associated with alienation and numerous years of abuse during trial?

“January 1, 2018 my ex and I are divorced (vanilla – almost 50/50 & no mention of abuse). June, 2018 my ex is interviewed. The night prior, I am told by our son; “”Dad, you would lie if it meant more money for your family, right?””
My ex received $10k to say “”I abused her and my kids””.

I have a liable/slander case against the corporation whom paid her and posted my kids pics on their website.
My question: when & if my ex or my kids claim “”abuse””; isn’t that perjury as she is going directly against the court case she file and agreed upon in our divorce/custody case? “

Parties commit perjury. Attorneys conspire with the other side. Judges ignore the law. People injured by this conduct have no remedy, because it’s all “absolutely privileged”. If you even TRY to sue somebody for this stuff, YOU will be sanctioned severely. The predictable result is relentless dishonesty in every single case of which I am aware, which cases number in the dozens. Mr. Resnick, isn’t placing wrongdoers above the law the problem here?

“Your bio reads that you “recently broke new legal ground in New Jersey on the subject of parental alienation and has argued before the Appellate Division of New Jersey and New Jersey Supreme Court on many other matrimonial and family law issues, as well.” Does that mean that your ground-breaking parental alienation case(s) were not before the NJ Appellate Division or Supreme Court? Where were they? Or, regardless of what court they were in, what was “ground-breaking” about them? Please give case names and/or citation numbers. “

Have you ever handled any class action-like cases the purpose of which was to correct a wrong or unfairness in the law like Pasqua v. Council, 186 N.J. 127, or Kavadas v. Martinez, MER-L-1004-15, for which you did not have a paying client? Tell us about those cases.

Your bio mentions that one of your specialties is cases for “high net worth” individuals. Do you, or any other lawyer that you know of, specialize in handling cases for low net worth people?

The topic of this symposium is “Turning Your Case Around.” As we all are aware, divorces and other family court matters are often financially devastating for (at least half of the) litigants. They get to a point where they cannot accept the outcome, can no longer afford to pay lawyers, and have no alternative other than attempt to represent themselves. Often, when this happens, because of inexperience or ignorance, they are out-gunned by opposing counsel and find themselves in an even worse position. There are likely some people participating in this symposium today who are in that situation. As the featured speaker today here in this symposium, how many cases are you, or your firm, prepared to take on a pro bono basis for these individuals?

Does it make sense to file a ‘Protection from Abuse’ case instead of a Divorce case? Main objective is to correct the behavior of the spouse to stop alienating children against other parent. Children are 16 and 18 yrs old. Filing a Divorce does not make sense at this stage.

How best to correct the behavior of spouse from not alienating the children.? Spouse does not want to participate in any kind of Family based Therapy / Counseling. We are still intact family and trying to avoid Divorce, but like to correct Alienating behaviors of spouse.

“If you have been deemed an alienated parent, the judge does not do anything about it and you have essentially been erased from your children’s life, are there rules of law and current NJ case law that penalizes judge’s for violation of your civil rights as an exception t judicial immunity? Is there national case law?”

“Can you sue an alienating parent for civil damages based upon loss of affections and loss of minor child from your life? Rules of law and case law?”

What can a parent whose alienated child aged out of the family court do to hold the favored parent accountable for in civil and criminal court?

When you have already been through a trial and the judge has displayed bias, how does one get a new judge assigned to the case? (internal review done and they found no evidence of bias)

It is very clear that the family court judges have great latitude in decision making the appellate division does all they can to uphold. How does on fight back without breaking the bank and getting fair changes made?

Explain, what, if any, is case law to use and precedent for showing how it is not in the best interest of a child to have LESS time with a parent than what they already have (short of an abusive situation)

How can a client reduce their legal fees? Can the client do some of the “work”? I.e. drafts and research

If a person represents themselves and fights diligently to get things changed in their case and brings a large motion to the court but not all issues are addressed by the judge, how can this be resolved? What if yet another motion and letters are submitted to the court and the person asks for the judge to rule on the remaining matters of the motion but the judge still does nothing. What recourse does a person have? (especially if subsequently the court then bans the person from filing motions without court approval)

I plan on requesting either a 730 or a 3111 evaluation because my ex is a high-conflict parent who is interfering with my time and bond with our 4-year-old child. She has filed a DV against me and I have a TRO restricting us to supervised visits. She was my abuser for 9 years. I am representing myself and I hope to make it clear what I am requesting to include in the scope of the evaluation. What can you advise, or what resources can I review to determine what I should request.

I live in NC and I’ve been alienated from my child for years. Is there a world wide organization for Parental Alienation Awareness? How can I go about creating that? I need more information on getting the word out and what we can do as a nation not just from state to state.”

Now that my son is 18 and has aged out of the system, is there anything that can be done? Can I hold anyone accountable for their role? My son’s therapist for example or my attorney or GAL or CPS (child protective services where i was falsely reported)? I was told that I must be a bad parent for my son to reject me. They said just wait a few years and he’ll come back home. Almost 3 years have passed with almost no contact. I don’t understand why the behaviors of the alienator were never addressed. How can this situation be turned around and awareness raised to stop this from happening to the next parent?

What do I do when I have a 2 Motions in Entirety (related to enforcement of MSA and Enforcement issues and one Motion over a year old, filed 12/30/19) not ruled upon by the Court and 2 Motions only partially ruled upon?

Also, in that same last Order (reflecting 90 percent of issues before the court) I was told that I cannot file any more motions at all without permission suggesting that my motions were frivolous despite the fact it was about Enforcement of MSA and parenting time being upheld and reimbursement for medical expenses per MSA.
What would you suggest I do? This Judge came on board in March 2020 and sat on 3 motions and just ruled on 2/16/20 with a Order that is basically neglecting requests for relief and trying to silence me.
“Background info: active divorce case for 7 years and trial pending

STBX has claimed 0 income and Pendente Lite support for the STBX has covered up her income. Evidence (bank records) of STBX income had been filed to the court since 2018, the court does not change the support order and has refused to report to NJ treasury and IRS. Question: If I want to report the tax evasion myself, should I report to NJ treasury first or IRS first? Will the tax fraud have any impact to the Pendente Lite support order? Could family court give me hard time when it comes to trial since it does not report the tax fraud and I report it?”

Is a mental health evaluation always necessary to prove parental alienation?

What behaviors/actions does the court need to see evidence of before they will believe parental alienation is present?

What types of evidence (e.g. emails, texts, audio, video, etc.) does the court want to see to prove these behaviors/actions?

If you believe you benefitted from FAN-PACs Legal Symposium, please consider a donation or volunteering. Thank you.
https://www.fanpacnj.org/donate