{"id":4743,"date":"2004-02-26T22:53:37","date_gmt":"2004-02-27T02:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/02\/26\/uk-dads-angrily-protest-divor"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:59","slug":"uk-dads-angrily-protest-divorce-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/02\/26\/uk-dads-angrily-protest-divorce-lawyers\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Dads Angrily Protest Divorce Lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a931'><\/a><\/p>\n<p><DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Claiming that divorce lawyers &#8220;pour petrol&#8221; on the flames of divorcing couples, and deprive children of the care of their fathers, members of the group Fathers 4 Justice have been staging dramatic protests in the United Kingdom.&nbsp; For example, according to <EM>The Huddersfield Daily Examiner:<\/EM><\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Fifteen fathers wearing white contamination outfits stormed the offices of Parker Bird solicitors in Queen Street, Huddersfield with sirens blaring, whistles blowing and flags waving.<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV align=\"left\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><\/FONT>&nbsp;<\/DIV><br \/>\n<DIV align=\"left\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/firemanhosegrayflip.jpg\" alt=\"fireman hose gray flip\" \/>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The&nbsp;<A href=\"http:\/\/ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk\/0100news\/0100localnews\/content_objectid=13992805_method=full_siteid=50060_headline=-Angry-fathers-in-law-firm-protest-name_page.html\">article<\/A> (&#8220;Angry fathers in law firm protest,&#8221; 02-26-04, <EM>via<\/EM> <A href=\"http:\/\/www.law.com\/jsp\/article.jsp?id=1076428421556&amp;specArtType=newsInBrief\">law.com<\/A>) also noted that F4J&nbsp;bestowed the Golden Petrol Can award on&nbsp;Parker Bird.&nbsp; In addition:<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The protesters claim the firm helps prevent fathers from maintaining their parental responsibilities and abuses the human rights of children and fathers in Huddersfield.<\/FONT><br \/>\n<LI><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&#8220;We feel that many solicitors manipulate family law against fathers.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Let me be frank:&nbsp; I&#8217;m surprised this sort of protest hasn&#8217;t happened more often in the USA.&nbsp; My sympathies are with the fathers.&nbsp; As a Law Guardian representing children and as a divorce mediator, I have seen far too many instances of divorce lawyers needlessly fomenting anger and prolonging proceedings, to the detriment of the own clients, the opposing party and, especially, the children.&nbsp; As lawyer-mediator Leonard Marlow has pointed out in <A href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/tg\/detail\/-\/0963274112\/qid=1077852670\/sr=1-1\/ref=sr_1_1\/102-4810311-4254502?v=glance&amp;s=books\"><STRONG><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Divorce and the Myth of Lawyers<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;and <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/tg\/detail\/-\/1413422810\/qid=1077852725\/sr=1-2\/ref=sr_1_2\/102-4810311-4254502?v=glance&amp;s=books\"><STRONG><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The Two Roads to Divorce<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A>, the only winners are the lawyers.<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><STRONG>p.s.<\/STRONG> For some practical advice on parenting after separation or divorce, see my essay <A href=\"http:\/\/www.singlesoutreach.org\/Resources%20and%20Links\/tipsforparenting.htm\">Tips on Parenting-Apart<\/A>.&nbsp; For advice on getting through the <EM>grief process<\/EM> of divorce or separation in order to be a healthier person and better parent, see my 1997 monograph, <A href=\"http:\/\/www.singlesoutreach.org\/Resources%20and%20Links\/good.htm\"><EM>Good Grief<\/EM><\/A><EM>.&nbsp;<\/EM>&nbsp; Both articles were written while operating&nbsp;Project PAX: the&nbsp;Parenting-Apart eXchange, in Scotia, New York.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claiming that divorce lawyers &#8220;pour petrol&#8221; on the flames of divorcing couples, and deprive children of the care of their fathers, members of the group Fathers 4 Justice have been staging dramatic protests in the United Kingdom.&nbsp; For example, according to The Huddersfield Daily Examiner: Fifteen fathers wearing white contamination outfits stormed the offices of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1ev","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13948,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743\/revisions\/13948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}