Posted by susan titus glascoff at 11/25/2008 7:40 PM
For Immediate Release by Cambridge Who's Who for member Susan
Titus Glascoff re court and media accountability and compassionate,
constructive win/win ideas and solicitations for national dialogue
Respected Advocate Calls for Court System Accountability
WESTPORT,
CT, November 25, 2008, Susan Titus Glascoff, founder and executive
director of the National Coalition for Family Justice’s National
Advisory Board, passionately believes that life's challenge is to see if
we can improve the human condition -- and she has spent the past 40
years successfully pursuing that goal. She has tirelessly advocated for
healthcare, education, business and legal reform. Currently, she is
advocating accountability in our court systems, especially as it impacts
on families in divorce courts. “Credible statistics prove entire
families become impoverished, but primarily mothers and children,” she
stated.
In 2005, Ms. Glascoff sent over 100 copies of her highly
researched report on legal accountability (Assessing the Big Picture Re:
Urgent Need for Broad Family Court Reform), which also included letters
from noted authors with reform ideas, to media outlets and politicians,
including Barack Obama. President-elect Barack Obama’s response letter
stated, in part, “It is unfortunate that family courts can often be
places that hinder, rather than help, the broken families who enter
them, and this situation must be addressed…. I can tell you care deeply
about the situation and have many good insights on what can, and should,
be done.” Although he also noted that some reform legislation was
pending across the country, Ms. Glascoff and numerous other
reform-minded people have observed scant improvement.
One
divorce case in which Ms. Glascoff is closely involved is the Taub case
in Brooklyn, NY. The complex case involves the division of assets and
properties worth an estimated $41 million. The divorce proceedings began
three-and-a-half years ago and appear nowhere near resolution. Ms.
Glascoff has been attending the hearings since February 2007 and has
concluded from her up close view of the proceedings and others that our
legal system sorely needs checks and balances. One example of legal
abuse in the proceedings to which she points involves the fact that
although Judge Carolyn Demarest ordered that the husband get his and his
wife’s contested home out of foreclosure, she did not enforce this
ruling and others, forcing the wife to file for bankruptcy. “Our entire financial crisis is intertwined with legal dysfunction,”
explains Ms. Glascoff. “We are bailing-out multi-million dollar
corporations, yet courts are forcing people into bankruptcy and
taxpayers are paying an estimated $4,500 per day for this one courtroom.
Surely, we have better things to do with tax dollars. To date requested
recusal for Judge Demarest has been ignored.”
To raise awareness
of these issues, Ms. Glascoff, Chana Taub, and two others sat with Ruth
Padawer, a freelance journalist for The New York Times, for seven hours
presenting documentation for the case. Simon Taub was interviewed
separately. The article, entitled “Chana and Simon Love Their House, but
. . . They Loathe Each Other” ran on October 5, 2008. Says Glascoff,
“The article totally skewed the facts, painting the wife as mercenary
and the husband as mostly fighting for his rights, downplaying official
abuse testimony, misleadingly mentioning a sexual libel suit, and
casting the judge as neutral. Biased editing erodes trust in good
authors and the media. Ignoring court abuse in any case impairs the
ability of the many good judges and lawyers to function.” Ms.
Glascoff firmly believes that we need national sustained dialogue, not
only about legal and media dysfunction but about compassionate
constructive ideas for conflict management and the challenges of good
partnering and parenting. She suggests that think tanks be formed and
incentives given to the country’s leading intellectuals to solve these
problems. State and other contests could also be initiated. Programs
like Lynn Gold-Bikin, Esq’s “Partners,” (high school charades about
personal relationships) should be required and extended to K-12.
Ms.
Glascoff maintains, “I’m trying to draw attention to the fact that
there is huge taxpayer impact from ignoring legal dysfunction. Simon
Taub caused three foreclosure proceedings by not paying the mortgages
on three buildings -- and bankruptcy costs everyone! It interrelates to
all issues, but is systematically avoided. I want good judges and
lawyers to clamor for justice. I’m determined to incite meaningful
dialogue to establish enforceable legal accountability regarding all
topics. Our system is increasingly about who can win, not fairness.
Excessive hourly billing that’s hard to verify and huge awards that
can’t undo wrongs but don’t benefit society and do line lawyers’ pockets
comprise a significant part of our gross domestic product. Excessive
pay for the top tier has pushed up housing costs via McMansions,
suppressed others’ wages, and is protected by legal contracts.” Ms.
Glascoff suggests: “How about a fund of give backs be established to
help reduce mortgages or increase others’ pay to restore balance and
faith in our system?”
“Solutions must be compassionate and constructive,”
she continues. Ms. Glascoff points to several books that embrace this
theme including “Anyway, The Paradoxical Commandments, Finding Personal
Meaning in a Crazy World,” written by Kent Keith, a Ph.D. lawyer who
participated in her 2005 report. He writes: “Nothing is more important
than what happens to the children. If there is hope for our children,
there is every hope. If there is no hope for our children, there is no
hope at all. The future of the world depends on the kinds of people
today’s children turn out to be.”
Ms. Glascoff points to other
books that espouse minimizing conflict/maximizing the positive including
“Positive Parenting for a Peaceful World,” by Ruth Tod, Amy
Sutherland’s “What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage –
Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainer,” Dov Seidman’s “How:
Why How We Do Anything Means Everything...in Business (and in Life),”
and Susan Pinker’s “The Sexual Paradox – Men, Women, and the Real Gender
Gap.” She suggests a list be promoted and include videos as well, such
as “Pay It Forward.”
“We need to make a major effort to
factually state problems and genuinely admit that we are all in this
together, and that when one part doesn’t work, the entire system is
sickened. Americans are ready for change -- that was made clear with the
election of Barack Obama. Let’s extend that concept to include legal
accountability and a genuine effort to interrelate all key issues,” she says.
For more information, visit www.advocateforlegalaccountability.com
No comments:
Post a Comment