From: slarsen@titian.helios.nd.edu (susan larsen)
Newsgroups: soc.men,soc.women
Subject: Re: Response to Deluge About Hillary Clinton
Date: 23 Jul 92 14:33:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Jul23.143344.11363
Organization: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame

In article <1992Jul22.223513.20718@javelin.sim.es.com> biesel@javelin.sim.es.com (Heiner Biesel) writes:
>
>As a practical matter, have you ever tried to get someone to fix
>your lemon car, pay you the salary they owed you, or make restitution
>for malpractice? In my experience, the system is set up to reward
>lawyers for suing those with deep pockets, and for representing the
>rich and powerful in their struggles.

I suppose with the American legal system, the more you know, the 
better off you are.  As a matter of fact, yes, I have gotten it to 
work for me.  I beat a landlord (which is not easy in pro-owner 
Indiana) and I feel, given the fact circumstances, that I got a 
good shake out of my divorce action.  I know others who have 
benefited, also.  Next time you have a legal action, check out 
small claims court.  Here in Indiana, the little guy doesn't need a
lawyer in small claims court.

>In your scenario, children would have to find lawyers to take them
>on contingency, or else you and I as taxpayers would have to fund
>the process. In the end, at best the court sez "Pay $X zillion to
>the plaintiff." How does that address the exploding heart of your
>cousin? Or suppose your beloved daughter decides to divorce you
>on the grounds of extreme mental cruelty (you've insisted for
>years that she clean up her room before going out, you wicked,
>controlling person) and wins. What now? She goes to live on her own,
>fully mature 13-year-old that she is, with you paying her bills?
>Or maybe she gets entry to a government Facility for Emotionally
>Abused Teenagers, staffed by Sensitive and Caring (TM) personnel, all
>trained at government facilities? Or rather, she gets A Large Settlement
>from you, 35% of which her lawyer pockets, while she continues to live
>in your house, except that you're now subject to random inspections
>to make sure you don't crowd her personal space. Perhaps she is
>consigned to the tender mercies of a foster family, who will provide
>her the opportunities for personal growth that you, mere birth-mother,
>have so long denied her?

Maybe all that could happen.  I don't think it would, but that is just 
my gut reaction.  However, I am well aware of what IS happening, right now
every day, in my neighborhood, in my city.  Families churning out damaged 
children.  I am willing to give up some of my all-encompassing parental 
authority and take the personal risk that I could get trapped in a bogus 
lawsuit if something could be done for the children who are living hell-life.
Obviously, you don't want to do that, that's okay.  Free country, and all that.

But think of this, let's say you croak and your ex-wife cracks up and your 
children get shuttled into an institution that would make the orphanage 
in Oliver Twist look like a romp in the park.  Wouldn't you want your 
children to have the ability, the personal empowerment, to fight back? 
To have some recourse to force the institution to treat the child at 
least as responsibly as a bank must treat its customers?  Or is it really 
okay with you that the same unquestionable parental authority that you 
currently possess is so readily transferrable to any number of institutions 
of dubious repute?  Well, I've worked in a couple of institutions that 
provide help for children and I've heard stories about others and were *I* 
to croak, I would certainly want my daughter to be able to protect herself 
under the law, just as fully as I would be protected.  Again, if that 
means that she would have a few more rights with regard to the care I 
provide, that's a risk I'd be willing to take.

I am truly sorry that you have experienced bad times through the legal 
system.  But IMO there is no reason to keep that system out of reach of 
any citizen, simply because they were a child when a wrong was committed 
against them.

Sue Larsen
slarsen@berlin.helios.nd.edu
Newsgroups: soc.men,soc.women,alt.dads-rights,alt.child-support