Transparency is essential to public confidence in the Judiciary. ONLY the Legislative and Executive Branches can protect us

• By Joseph Kenick
  
  
• “Confidentiality has done more to protect the system than to protect the children in the system,’’ said Michael Nash, chief presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s children’s court. He ruled in January that dependency hearings in his county will be open to the public unless there is proof the child will be harmed. How come we don't have that here in New Hampshire? I begged the court to interview... the children in chambers and MM Cross refused. I pleaded with the GAL to investigate the children's complaints of abuse and she refused. Even when my son told his doctor and his school guidance counselor he was HIT WITH A BAT for pleading to live with me, the 2011 DCYF report states "worker did not formally interview the children at the request of Ms. Kenick". THIS HAS TO CHANGE!

·         The change is usually spurred by a horrific child abuse case or a push from local media to gain access. The beating death of 6-year-old Elisa Izquierdo by her mother prompted the opening of New York family courts in 1997 and the passage of a state open-records law referred to as “Elisa’s Law.’’
But the practice can vary by county or by judge, even in states that are presumed to be open. A New York...Times reporter visited local courtrooms at random last year and found that many were closed with locked doors or hostile deputies.
“Social workers were identified as falsifying records and lying in court, and I heard horror stories from family court judges. The lack of transparency has harmed far too many families and children,’’ Kentucky Rep. Susan Westrom said.“In every state there are lots of people worried and upset that courts are going to be opened and then a few years later everybody forgets the courts were ever closed. The disasters that everybody worried about never happened and there is a modest uptick in attention. It’s constructive,’’ said Matt Fraidin, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia. Lawyers in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, and Utah told Fraidin no problems have been reported since opening courtrooms there.