Dear Reader;

For those of you who have been through the family courts and wondered what just happened this email contains several resources judges use to determine whether or how much time you will have with your children.  There are many good judges across the nation working to keep children and parents fully engaged with each other.  On the other hand statistics continue to indicate Fathers are the parent overwhelmingly relegated to visitor, non-custodial or non-primary residential status even when that Father has joint legal and/or physical custody of the children and has been a 'hands on' fully engaged parent.

Our movement needs to be aware of an influential organization located in Reno, Nevada called the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).  For the better part of the past 60 years NCJFCJ has provided training and programming material for family court judges.  Their influence in family law and the courts is significant.  For those whose cases involve allegations of Domestic Violence or restraining orders you'll want to be aware of these two publications of NCJFCJ which address these issues and how the organization counsels judges to view your case when you come to court.  Take a look at NCJFCJ's Burgundy Book and their latest Judges Bench Guide for safety involving child custody cases.  There are a number of serious concerns within these documents, for example judges are instructed to ignore claims and evidence of parental alienation and strike them from the record.

A WOMAN who abandoned her baby in a railway station toilet cubicle has walked free from court after successfully arguing that sending her to jail was too strict a sentence.

Lisa Randall, 26, left her eight-month-old son in a cubicle at Bristol Temple Meads station. On Monday, Torquay Magistrates sentenced her to four months in prison for abandoning her child in a way which was likely to cause him "unnecessary suffering".

But yesterday at Exeter Crown Court, her defence argued she felt "threatened and intimidated" in prison and was afraid of the reaction from other inmates if they found out why she was jailed.

Judge Philip Wassall told Randall that while her decision to abandon her baby was a "wicked prioritisation" of her own needs and wishes over those of her child and her custodial sentence had been "justified", the experience of being locked up for four days would have been a salutary lesson. He then reduced the sentence to 100 days suspended for two years, a move welcomed by childcare experts.