How independent parents in Illinois and Missouri are feeling about driving up representation rates while focusing on the most vulnerable children and reversing the strikes
MISSOURICASE.NET - A private parents group known as CLU (Clean Law Union) selected a network of Missouri family court cases to help fill the lack of representation with social justice efforts.
About 5,500 independent parents have filed a dissolution of marriage case with children involved in the state of Missouri alone during the first quarter of 2021. That's roughly 22,000 people per year. 17,700 of those (80%) are either unrepresented or underrepresented throughout complex paywalls, digital systems of efilings, physicals systems of organized professionals, virtual hearings, third party software, computer mandates, internet mandates, third party software support in foreign languages, and Supreme Court rules, it's no wonder their so much pain and suffering.
Navigating other complex multi-systems like signing up for college, navigating financial aid, navigating virtual classrooms, and eventually receiving a degree all favors those who are in the known. Those who've done it before or get paid to help. Much like those in the family law industry. Those who can afford fitting representation: either by means of an expensive college degree or retainer fee, have a better shot of success. Yet, children and young families in divorce court battles and similar deployments to war don't need expensive chest-beating, they just need professional love-keeping.
The difference between people earning a college degree and people earning successful legal cases is that 100% who try could earn a college degree, but only 50% of those who try can "win" what they're asking for in family court decisions. Is it any wonder people drop out?
But, what in the world could keep them in the game, you might ask.
Members of Life Winks® and independent parents everywhere are helping bridge the lack of representation gap in several ways. One way is by reporting on the state of the unrepresented, the other is by a comprehensive new network of services - including virtual, individual, and group support.
Here are some interesting facts about what else is going on in grave "family" law practices - The state of unrepresented families and categories of unrepresented and underrepresented family members:
1. Court percentages involving children. In Missouri dissolution of marriage cases involving children, it's roughly 80%. Dissolution of marriage cases without children involved: 20%.
2. Dissolution of marriage cases where one family member is represented, while the other party not represented (numerically +1 v -1, or "plus one versus minus one"):
People who unfortunately find themselves in category 2, whether willingly or against their will, experience a standing judicial difference of 2. Two times x'd. Nothing most people express concern about. Even if they do, those concerns are easily dismissed. But many of those who are attorney challenged say that the results are feel much more than two times the time. They report being much more emotionally challenged, socially challenged, and financially challenged.
In a longitudinal scientific study on the non-judicial side of these experiences called social and emotional voidology, category 2 is a difference of 4 pain points (2 social standing pain points and 2 emotional pain points). Which makes sense because it's a known adversarial system of attrition. Where the biggest budgets typically win. But unrepresented eye witnesses report time and time again that it feels like they never have a voice, they are never heard by decision-makers, and they are always impacted negatively every time they try to raise their hands and show evidence or proof of truth.
Imagine you're a student in an altercation on the playground or on social media and one side has a parent or MMA expert backing them up and the other side doesn't. The side without representation can be pained and never comforted more than the side with representation. They can be pained even when they express not wanted to fight. In other words, pressed and pressed but never authentically included. Straight cancelled for trying.
3. Dissolution cases where no family member is represented (categorized -1 v -1 - pronounced "minus one versus minus one):
4. Two family members are represented equally (categorized +1 v +1, or an "up & up" experience).
5. One family members is represented times two and the other party is represented (+2 v +1):
6. One family members is overly represented and other family members are not represented (+2 v -1):
7. Dissolution of marriage cases like that KMOV4 story that aired on May 4, 2021 where one parent is subject to psychological authors, two parties are represented, and the other party does not have a psychological voice (+3 v -1).
In the study of social and emotional voidology, category 7 is a difference of 8 pain points (4 social standing pain points and 4 emotional pain points). Which can also be thought of in financial terms. Category 8. One family member has two representatives, a second family member has no representative, and an attorney "Guardian Ad Litem (GAL)" (in Illinois, there are routine attorney "Mediator" interventions as well) is involved to report to the courts.
9. Other categories of representational differences included: +2 versus +2, +3 versus +1, +3 versus +2, and +3 versus +3 (the rarest and most expensive fact of all).
The invisible buried need
Even sadder, when it comes to uncovering the life flow of 17,700 Parent X's a year in the state of Missouri, and there's a total population of 6.2 million, then that's only 0.3% of the people. When poor and underserved people don't have enough democratic power to pull their own weight in county policymaking, hire a lawyer, or go to law school, then surely they wouldn't have access to a believable voice at the state, federal, or county board levels of government. A cry easily trumped be virtually anyone and everyone else.
Of course, these facts are not easily conveyed by conventional lawyers, nor is it an exhaustive list of conventional family law industry shortcomings. It's a well-known adversarial system with parental attritions until the end, and with psychological warfare as it's levers along the way. Who would dare speak up if they could?
It broke Olivia's heart to find out that she wasn't the only gifted child turned unrepresented, cancelled life. In Illinois, the statistics show that these seemingly canceled people are always the same way - industrially disadvantaged. They all show that outside of advertised "family" law court, we all experience the same chronic hopelessness - the same worn-out shoes.
A 2020 study in Central Illinois counties from St. Claire County to Christian County revealed that nearly 80% of truly innocent people were unrepresented or underrepresented (scientifically speaking). Even with their children on the line, their homes, finances, retirement accounts, pets, emotional well-being, social standings, and more. What's been said to be a monumentally deconstructive impact.
The Hidden Parent X Phenomenon is in multiple states. Life flows of these poor people proves that they either stay quit about it in public, or else risk rolling the dice in a "game" that's already rigged against them. Because when 0.3%-ers speak up along with the 99.7%-ers, then who gets silenced? Who doesn't get a seat at the table inside their own minds?
Parent X - What are you missing?
The letter x is commonly used at the end of a letter to symbolize a kiss. In algebra, the letter x is commonly used as a variable that students try and solve for. In hunting for hidden treasure, x "marks the spot." But in regards to social standing, access, and inclusion, Malcom X explained in his autobiography that x symbolized the true African family name that he would never know (Wikimedia Foundation, 2021). For parents subject to conventional "family" law versus law, parent x means the same thing. It symbolizes the true family, even children, that they may be systemically or otherwise nixed away from their true families in the future and never again know them.
What are you missing? Are you missing hope? Kids? Representation?
Life Winks pioneer Olivia discussed in her blog that when she was a young child growing up the whole world turned her against her teacher's. Not only was she traumatized by this, but she never forgave school for all the seeds that other people planted in her mind in dispute about what her teacher had said positively about her. She was never able to lien on her education, her social standing, her finances, or her own emotional stability again.
What are you missing? Are you missing social standing? Contractual money accuracy? Emotional stability?
Scientifically, just like Olivia was later taught in engineering school, by simply walking with these family members at MISSOURICASE.NET, the typical Parent X has a minimum of three strikes against them before going through family law door. Before entering the circuit clerks office. Before going into family court. Three strikes against them compared to alleged criminals going through the criminal court process.
For example, criminals have the right to attorney help when they are poor, but Parent X does not. That's strike one❌. Criminals have the right to bail in their court when accusations are made, but parents in their court don't have bail when accusations and cross accusations are made. Criminals have the right to a jury trial when conflicts never resolve themselves and a Democratic decision is needed, but Parent X does not. That's strike three❌❌❌. Sadly, there are many other disparities young innocent parents experience that criminals like murders don't have to experience.
In a stunning pivot from the status quo, the Parent X smartphone app is facilitating the human / scientific side of justice. Opening up access for consumers to NOT LOSE FAMILY ❌ and valuable data unnecessarily, & WIN EVERYONE LOVE ✅ and securing data necessarily.
What are you missing? Mom? Dad? Grandma? Grandpa? Gift exchanges? Mail? Social media access? Time? Location in the world?
Pivot ye compounding troubling policy
"To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:79 KJV)
Calculate and Fill the Need - Looking good
When one parent with a single representation has a social value of two and the other party has a social value of one, then that gap in need of filling is measured as a "one." Usually this "one" gap is balanced with social justice measures in a safer private network (SPN) from certified practitioners at www.cleanlaw.today. This is individual help.
When Mississippi College of Law Professor Alina Ng Boyte heard about the program, she called it "An innovative new program mitigating the effects of divorce on children." But author Aaron Wemple feels that it's more than that. In his book, he says that it's "A side of overlapping empathy with all the overlapping hostility in the world. For those vulnerable children in an unfair systemic pinch, it's like a bandaging and salve instead of just more pinches."
When Aron Buttram was in the middle of a category 2 experience being a Parent X, Olivia asked him how safe he felt before and after the filling measure of social justice. He said before that he was finally accepting that felt like a "deadbeat" like all the pollical actions of the day, but then after he felt like a "life raft" and realized that if he floats, then the family floats.
Lightbulb Moments - Early Adoptors
When either party is absent from a representative and cannot afford an expensive retainer fee or college degree, then CLU (www.cleanlawunion.com) has fitting group solutions to pray for and encourage people through. They often turns those life sinking measures into safety nets. Because when there's no right to representation nor a right to bail when accusations are made, then all hell, all gaslighting, psychological warfare, ostracizing, trickery, and inciting rage quit are on the loose. While everything and everyone is on the line and in the balance of those resulting decisions with only 50% odds of being least unfavorable.
When Chris Clark was a Parent X experiencing a category 2, he said that before filling measures he felt worthless and like giving up on life. But then after he felt like working harder and saving up for an attorney and like he never wanted to stop fighting for his kids.
If it is virtual help that parties need, then www.majorleaguefamily.com is just right for them. Not only can they get a free Gifted Family Plan to try and keep the family together, but they can earn money if needs be.
When Aaron Wemple was a Parent X after going through both a category 2 experience and category 7 experience, he said that "After these gap filling measures life became a spirit of ultra-safety towards justice. I started feeling the inclusion of family in decisions across different counties. I started seeing access to more civilized family law practices across the board."
Trying to wrap your brain around the invisible (at best) representation gaps that impact people every day in family law, is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop and drop and drop.
The number of divorce cases filed each year nationally according to the CDC, is 1.1 million. At with a national average of 2 children per family, that's 2.2 million children per year impacted by divorce alone. And that's 0.88 million children every year impacted by parents who lack representation. Where will that shoe drop?
St. Louis - What's missing?
You would never know it, but in the early 1900s, before Forest Park in St. Louis even existed, that land was a smelly, deadly, toxic swamp - Land X. But for the 1904 World's Fair, St. Louis buried the open sewage river beneath Forest Park to hide the stench. Bond money and several federal relief agencies developed land reclamation acts, including the River des Peres Greenway linking seven parks, three business districts, bike trails, and six neighborhoods. Afterwards, people everywhere appreciate the filling measures.
Today, there's no shoe waiting to drop. Just benefits for visionaries everywhere looking for a healthy destination to enjoy.
Besides filling in the missing representation gaps locally, in St. Louis and Central Illinois, independent parents are also planning to draft a bill for the U.S. Congress or a bonding initiative for the City of St. Louis regarding a future Family Reclamation Act. Or, they'll be safer to wait until cleaning up a mess is much more acceptable than leaving it.
When you're young and crying for your non-custodial parent or deployed parent, it can feel like a crime to speak out. And when you're older and without representation but trying to include your truth with decision-makers, then that can obvious a child up against a team of psychological warfare artists. Which is very a very dangerous place to be.
From little Olivia's lifetime of feeling those broken worn-out shoes and her deconstructive experiences through the family law industry, while her dad was gone to war, the unrepresented life her mom experienced was very self-defeating and painful indeed. So much so that she was always trying to escape those feelings, while also being hypersensitive to even looking for new shoes. She's stuck in someone else's painful pinch.
She learned first-hand that conventional "family" law versus law is not for vulnerable young children, gifted children, the unrepresented, nor the faint of heart. But it was for the calloused, cruel, cold, and unconscionable.
Several Illinois state legislative initiatives that independent parents have worked on so far to try and remove the pain for children include Madison's Initiative to limit "Continuance" maneuvers to 30 days, and Evan's Initiative to allow bail for accusations made in family court.
However, like for the 0.3%-ers, those initiatives have been met with crickets at best. Stories of zombies trying to destroy the world at worst.
So, children of unrepresented parents like Madison and Evan now find no hope to wipe away their tears, and prevent the tears for other kids, as far as policy is concerned. Or, as Olivia likes to say to them, there are no new shoes in the queue for the unrepresented. "Just wear your old shoes," Olivia says, "and get used to being hurt for looking for new ones."
"Family court," says the famous Judge Judy, is full of "morons" & "political hacks."
"Policymaking," says Olivia, "Is full of postvention systemics after postvention systemics. We're not geared as a society to ever prevent those unrepresented lives. We're only geared to add more conflicted complications to future cases after the fact."
Olivia says that the morale of her story is that if you have some life to live, and old shoes to fill but never new, then nowhere but quit is the place for you.
How to an Inclusion & Fairness Rescuing Hero
Among recent experiences in St. Louis high school protest events, when some parents wanted a theory taught to students and others do not, that led to rounds of public debates.
But if some students had a teacher to get them past fourth grade English class, and another students did not, then you'd think either the school principal or the school board would find a way to fill that gap. Otherwise, how would those vulnerable students even get a grade recorded? That would be a similar Student X.
If those gaps in St. Louis "family" law versus law were in respect to vaccination shots, then even the federal government is willing to intervene and contract with private companies to fill that need of everyone being able to receive a Covid-19 vaccination. Otherwise, how could a large number of people gain preventative measures instead of just postvention shoes to fill? The would literally be People X if they did not have outside preventative measures.
The early adopters of family restoration measures, many who still feel like Olivia, have been among the most resilient people in their families and communities. Even children like Alayna in Central Illinois write "Love, Love" on her file folder because she was not lost in conflict while her parents experienced high attrition rates during her years in a high conflict divorce.
Adding value and rebranding to unrepresented people has proven to have life sustaining qualities. However, most children feel like Olivia or like Lefty Lefty below instead instead of being lucky enough to have an outside society who cares. When their moms and dads weren't represented, or equally represented, then things became very traumatic very fast. These are Children X. And they're never the same. Those devalued experiences etch in stone (and on paper) in their minds to remain smelly pain points forevermore.
"We should all be concerned about the lack of coverage in the legal world shortcomings where decisions are enforced," says Olivia. "After all," she says, "we're paying for it."
It's a little bit different than students not having a teacher to help them get past English. If you have worn-out shoes and can't pass a class for whatever reason, then there are always alternatives. But those who are still waiting to save up money for a representative's retainer fee or get a college degree for their case, like being last in line behind criminals on their way up to the chopping block, well, it's always a thousand too late and a thousand short. Too late to ever to present their truth in an unfair and unbiased manner.
So those decisions never reflect being seen, heard, or known. Decisions etched on stone for Parent X to never again have a seat at the table inside of their own minds.
And the Fathers & Families Support Center in St. Louis reports that children like Olivia are 20 times more likely to end up in prison and suffer behavior issues,10 times more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs, and seven times more likely to end up pregnant. Sure makes trying to fill in the gaps by yourself a lot safer than bringing them to the public's attention.
So a few underground families today are finding new shoes to wear without all the pain.
How can others donate missing life?
Many people donate blood, plasma, and even organs to people in need. And we're already donating to systems that seem to endanger people like Olivia.
Donating to a sustainable alternative representation, like the Gifted Kids Faculty, helps people piece together their lives and provides the judicial and social stability we all need by filling in where other systems fall short. That's heroic!
Families everywhere could be just as grateful as someone who received a much-needed kidney or plasma transfusion from a total stranger. That proof's in reality and clean data, not court or gamy accusations.
Asked what it feels like to be on the front lines of the newly represented life, seven-year-old Madison Clark says, "Best day ever!"
A table for Olivia
Helping the unrepresented and their children get unstuck from typically concrete contract terms in the permanent parental market exchange is a brand new charity, of sorts, on the table. "From cradle to grave," Olivia says, "my life flow would've been so much different. So much safer than having to hurt to look for new shows. Helping normal people get paid to always wear new shoes is a dream come true!"
Are you being called up?
Reference
Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, June 7). Malcolm X. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X#:~:text=In%20his%20autobiography%2C%20Malcolm%20X,imposed%20upon%20my%20paternal%20forebears.%22.