Voice of the People

Testimony and comments have been given by many people representing the various sides and views on Family Courts, Guardians ad litem and reform. Presented here is testimony and comments collected since 2012. Please note that some of these files are large and may take some time to load and play.

2015-05-19 Senate Confirmation Hearing on the Reappointment of the Hon. Jeffrey Moskowitz. Please note that this is a large file and may need to be downloaded.

2015-05-07 Testimony Regarding the Re-Appointment of Hon. Jeffrey Moskowitz before the Judiciary Committee.

The recordings are not the best quality and we have done everything possible to give you the best quality as possible. These are presented in the order that the speaker gave testimony. If you would like the whole audio please contact us at MeGALalert@gmail.com.

2015-04-21 Testimony given on several bills broken down by bill:

LD 346 An Act To Require Shared Parenting of Minor Children When the Parents Separate
LD 642 An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding the Best Interest of the Child Standard

2015-03-19 Testimony Regarding the Re-Appointment of Hon. Patricia Worth before the Judiciary Committee.
  • Testimony before committee on the Re-Appointment of Hon. Patricia Worth. This is the full testimony.
2015-02-12 Judicial Branch supplementary budget request before the Judiciary Committee. This file is about 21 min and in MP3 format.
2015-02-05 FLAC presentation before the Maine Judiciary Committee. This recording comes in at just under 15 min. This file is in MP3 format.
2015-01-29 Presentation before the Maine Judiciary Committee. These are extracts from the almost hour long presentation that Hon L Saufley gave. These files are in MP3 format and may need to be downloaded depending on your browsers settings:
The Court Task Force heard comments from the public. Comments started on January 6, 2014 and ended January 15, 2014 and were given in locations that covered the state of Maine. Posted here are comments to the task force by parents and stakeholders given in Rockland (01/09/2014) and Portland (01/14/2014). The original posting on the Me state Judicial web site may be found here: Task Force. The links go to files which are MP2 and MP3 formats. We are updating the files to MP3 format If you are not able to listen to this format please email and tell us what format you are able use.

Comments to the Family Court Task Force:

Rockland Maine 01-09-2014
Portland Maine 01-14-2014
Written comments to the task force:
2013-12-02 State of Maine - Proposed Amendments to the Maine Rules for Guardians ad litem.
The Judicial Branch has given citizens a chance to comment on the proposed amended rules. The cutoff is Dec 02, 2013 - because it is important that all comments are published even after the deadline - any comments emailed to MeGALalert@gmail.com will be published. For further information on Guardians ad litem please follow the link to the Judicial Branch web page.

2013-03-28 Testimony before the Joint Committee of the Judiciary.
01 - Sen. David Dutremble
02 - Rep. Lisa Villa
03 - Sen. Justin Alfond
04 - Rep. Jennifer Dechant
05 - Gov Office Michale Cianchette
06 - Judicial Branch Hon. Robert E. Mullen, Deputy Chief Judge
This is only a partial listing of the testimony that was given. These files should be MP2 files but can be formatted differently if they cannot be played by your audio player. These files may need to be downloaded. The complete files may be found here - Joint Committee of the Judiciary.

6 comments:

  1. With public complaints of GALs rising faster than proposed amendments being addressed....it will not be long before families outraged by innapropriate behaviors by GALs and the emotional harm it is inflicting on their children, unite protectively as parents and take action to hold somebody accountable. I foresee a wave of lawsuits against the judicial system in the future. And with very little compliance for GALs, they are taking more and more matters into their own hands, crossing more lines, causing more damage, making it easier for future lawsuits.....well deserved for the damage done. If the commity responsible doesnt grasp the harm caused on a child from a poor or biased GAL and address this immediately.....I assure you parents will...and that will become a much bigger issue than the courts want or need to deal with.

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    1. Thank you for the comment..... There will be a tipping point in the future with Family Courts and change will come. Right now the divorce industry is fighting hard to prevent change - their livelihood is at stake.

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  2. I could not agree more. I felt so alone going through the process, not even knowing what a GAL was when the court assigned one. Next thing I knew, he was recommending my children be allowed to live with their mother who chose to relocate to Tennessee. The guardian was completely biased against me , every step of the way, and made it very apparent. And now my children live 1000 miles away, with an ex-wife who could care less about my access to them, or even keeping the minimal visitation the curt mandated.

    The damage just to my little family, is so immense. I can't stand to think of how much pain has been spread all over the state by these GALs. Let's all hope and pray that some how this head of steam building is going to blow, and something will change.

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    1. Ian - have received your emails and will be in contact with you shortly.

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  3. Thanks for all your great work for families. I have some ideas I look forward to sharing.
    J

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    1. Jen thank you for the comment and thank you for taking the time to testify on April 21st.

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