Divorcing Unemployed Dads Face Contempt Of Court

The loss of a job, or a serious decline in personal income can put a great deal of stress on a family. When a family breaks up or divorces the most common reasons are are Infidelity, claims of abuse, or financial circumstances.

With the economy tanking courts must address how divorcing parents will care for their kids. This is a challenging task, especially for Dads who are now trying to build their lives anew again, and moms who once relied on a husband to pay for the needs of children and the household.

The law gets sticky when unemployment comes into play, courts often require Dads to show proof that they are looking for work, and if those Dads are self employed than things get even more complex.

A divorced Dad with a business can have an "earning capacity order" that earning capacity is based on the testimony of witnesses and business records produced to the court as evidence of income potential. Once an order is established, and a weekly payment is set failure to pay can result in incarceration by way of contempt of court.

While there officially is no such thing as Debtors prison in America, "Contempt of court" is the equivalent of imprisonment at the will and discretion of any judge. Recently a man was sentenced to jail for six months under this rule, for yawning in court.

Once a court puts an order in place it expects that order to be obeyed. Even though an order based on an "Earning Capacity" is theoretical and not indicative of any present day facts, the court does not take the position of hearing excuses after the fact. The rule is simple, your business is expected to earn "X$" a month and if "X$" is not paid than a deadline is usually issued on Dad who must find the money or face being jailed.

With the time it takes to get things corrected, often having to hire an attorney and file hardship motions months can go by without any meaningful results. When hard times hit a family, and the economy and job opportunities dry up in tandem kids, dads, and broken families pay the price harder than anyone.

Milford's courts are no exception, at any given time there are scores of people in family court arguing this very issue. Attorney's at the courthouse indicated that the "threat of incarceration" is a "good rule" because this is an effective way to produce money for the custodial parents and the kids who need it.

There are no guarantees that the legal system can always help a distressed parent. There are many non-custodial parents who served their time in jail, and had their earning capacity reset.

However, all is not lost for kids because CT offers help for single moms. This help comes in the form of a Support Enforcement Office, a Victims Advocate and some social programs to financially assist the children of the custodial parent with health care, food stamps, and counseling. Unfortunately little help exists for dad especially in cases where parental alienation exists due to the animosity of a relationship.

Photo of Essex Family Court Judge James B. Convery

Tax Day Tea Party Coming To Connecticut

The kettle is brewing and about to boil over this April 15Th at a city near Milford. Years of taxation without representation, excessive wasteful spending, looting of our treasury and runaway debt on the backs of countless future generations of children are what is on the hearts and minds of the American people.

Congress and its 9% approval rating, both our state Senators Dodd and Lieberman now publicly despised for their party betrayal and cronyism to banks and the war agenda's are seeing their campaigns in trouble next election cycle.

This WEBSITE (CLICK THE LINK) has at least three tea parties going on in our state. These tea parties are part of a grass roots movement comprised of not one single leader but many brave citizens who are angry and wish to organize their local communities to exercise their First Amendment rights. They ask for our leaders to redress their grievances, and hold accountable those responsible for the tax and debt malfeasance that is undermining America and its ability to prosper and recover from the current Recession and widespread unemployment.

Anyone who wishes to show these organizations their support should visit the link listed above and participate in what is a PEACEFUL NON-VIOLENT PROTEST, this is how a successful protest works and all those wishing to participate should express their views with with signs, handouts, a megaphone or something that does not result in injury to another individual.

What Is Killing American's

Over the last several years I have taken part in watching countless documentaries on everything from Genetically engineered foods to the casualties caused by fast food and the tobacco industry. In todays blog I decided to compile some statistics for everyone to see. This is because we all know that there are greedy profiteers out there that will feed us and sell us anything for a buck regardless of the impact it has on our lives.

Most people being naive, believe the claims made by these big industries, who despite the facts have told us their products are safe, wonderful, and urged you to become part of the growing trend. As you watch every cheeseburger, cheap foreign product, medicine and widget come across your television to the tune of about 20-30 commercials per hour, your mind is being shaped for the benefit of the big corporations who care not a damm about anything other than selling you.

The way these companies sell you is by making their products as delicious, and addictive as possible. The aim is to keep you coming back again and again as a customer until eventually over a prolonged exposure to the plethora of health damaging products lands you sick in a hospital. The big corporations do not care about your health, but rather their bottom line... how much have they sold and how much money is there in profit. In summary they get rich, you get indebted, jobless, sick and then prematurely die, hopefully this helps you get the picture.

Something to think about while you are at home (fat and in debt), watching a foreign made T.V. with a bag of fast food on your lap.

A: Tobacco Products Kill Apx. 500,000 people every 364 Days.

B: Obesity Related Deaths Apx. 400,000 people every 364 Days.

C: American's Owe Apx. 1,000,000,000,000.00 On their Credit cards alone.

D: There are 250,000 new cases of Diabetes each year 8 Million may have it already.

E: The average Kid watches T.V. 24 hours a week.

F: America Lost Apx. 3 Million Jobs overseas.

G: Nutrasweet Discovered To Cause Brain Cancer.

H: Apx 60% Of All Marriages Ended In Divorce.

And the biggest of them all, last year the American dream of owning a home resulted in foreclosures jumping upward to a 75% increase.

America is now in your hands, this country can only be saved from the bottom up. And in the words of a famous other. "Seek to become the change you want to see in the world."

To learn more about this epidemic, read Peter Strupp's hilarious book. Fat Dumb And Ugly

A Bad Economy Can Land You In CT's Debtors Prison

While the founders of our great nation abhorred the notion of a debtors prison, special interests from several areas of society pushed legislators hard to draft laws that force you to pay up or go to jail.

While no court in this great state would ever dare to use the term "debtors prison" they instead speak the legalese equivalent of "contempt of court." When it comes to paying up "Contempt of Court" and "Debtors Prison" is essentially the same thing. Both represent an individual going to jail for owing money.

This is particularly of grave concern in a bad economic period, because your loss of a job, decline in business, or failure to sell your home could very easily translate to a criminal act.

At the federal level the top jailers are the IRS and the contemptible failure to pay your income tax, file on time, or not report to the agencies satisfaction. However do not be too concerned about the law, because there is no law even requiring a person to pay an income tax but the IRS is all about collecting. According to several experts on the IRS and Tom Cryer a constitutional attorney "there is no law even requiring a person to pay." However do not tell that to Ed and former CT Citizen Elaine Brown a dentist in NH now in Federal Prison on tax charges. No one is exempt from the tax mafia not even U.S. Congressman James Trafficante who is in prison for not paying the tax.

At the state level we have similar but different circumstances. There is the constant flood of divorced people who get regularly incarcerated for not paying, or not paying enough child support, alimony, or what ever the judge orders in court. The process of having a court threaten you with debtors prison will last as long as your contentious other decides to subjugate you to the draconian logic of the judicial officer brandishing his gavel. Our legislators in Hartford drafted the debtors prison legislation under the belief that this is the only way to get people to pay up.

The harsh choice of having a judicial gavel pointed at you demanding your "money or your freedom" has also got the attention of the credit card companies who want to get in on the collection process. With millions of Americans having negative savings for the first time in history, the risk and exposure to the big banks is growing exponentially. Foreclosures, are the first hardship for homeowners, the next is bank Levy's and liens on anything remaining of value, and the IRS also jumps in to tax you on loan money you saved due to the bank selling your home at a loss. In many cases a bank will try to insulate against these losses by going to court and getting a court order against your bank account/s resulting in you bouncing checks, and missing other payments.

These court orders take no mercy on those who receive them, courts will allow banks to take Veterans checks, Social Security checks, and force the elderly, sick, and poor to lose the only access to the few dollars they have. The Federal poverty level of $14,000 per year has been routinely confiscated to the point where the sick and elderly have been dumped on the street for the benefit of collecting a debt. The panic to collect is spreading to all aspects of society, including our hospitals, who ask us about every asset we own upon signing in, and the brazen new generation of attorneys so eager to represent these big establishments to quell their own financial woes.

The need to collect a debt is something I respect as a business man, as I have several customer debts of my own that I try to collect, but under no circumstance is the money I am owed so important that I could stand to ruin a persons life over a few bucks.

The very nature of a debtors prison is abhorrent to me, and what is most alarming is when people who owe money are not even afforded the protections of living at the Federal poverty level. When a court of law would go so far as to confiscate a persons Social security check, or veterans check to satisfy a corporation I take issue with the lack of protections afforded society.

It is my opinion that the entire idea of "debtors prison" has no place in America, CT, or anywhere where freedom rings. Nor do I believe that a person should be stripped of their ability to afford the basics of food and minimal shelter, because of a bad debt situation. People and corporations should be accountable to their own lending mistakes, and courts ought not be used as collection agencies for special interests and big corporations.