Fathers and Families seeks better lives for children through family court reform that establishes equal rights and responsibilities for fathers and mothers, and which protects the child’s right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce.

The Fathers and Families Legal Defense Fund takes on cases, writes amicus brief, or advises in cases which can help advance the cause of family court reform.

Fathers and Families brought a lawsuit to block the new Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines from being implemented in 2009. The lawsuit has been covered by the Associated Press, the New York Times, CBS, WRKO, the Boston Globe, NPR, Newsweek, and numerous other major media outlets. The case went all the way up to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where our side lost in September of 2011. To learn more, click here.

In a stunning October, 2011 victory, duped dad Pedro Soto and his attorney Richard A. Lowe, Esq. prevailed against the Orange County Department of Child Support Services in a paternity fraud case emblematic of the numerous outrageous injustices faced by men and fathers in family court. In this case, Soto has paid over $75,000 in child support for a child DNA tests have established is not his, and who has been living with both of his biological parents for many years. Fathers and Families was instrumental in that win–to learn more, click here.

Fathers and Families assisted Captain Christine Brandt of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps with her Colorado Supreme Court case in which she regained custody of her 12-year-old son. Brandt’s ex, George Brandt, tried to take custody of their son away from Christine by using her military service against her. As Brandt’s attorney Stanley G. Lipkin, Esq. explained to the Court, this case is “about an active duty military person who has been deprived of the custody of her child solely by reason of her deployments.” To learn more, click here.

Fathers and Families wrote an amicus brief for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which helped win a precedent-setting case protecting children in joint physical custody from being moved out of state, away from one parent.

In the Savarese case, a Massachusetts father was hit with an erroneous child-support arrearage of over $100,000.  Despite many obstacles, Fathers and Families was able to get the false arrearage wiped out.

Fathers and Families penned an amicus brief for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in A.H. v. M.P. supporting the parenting rights of a non-biological lesbian mother  — a woman who had been a parental figure for the child for years but who was cut off from the child by the biological mother after the couple separated. Fathers and Families feared that the case could set a precedent marginalizing parents to whom children are deeply attached simply because they are breadwinners.

If you believe that you know of or are involved in a case that would be appropriate for the Fathers and Families Legal Defense Fund, we suggest that you fill out our our Family Law Help Form here and write “LDF” at the beginning of the “Family Law Problem” section. Please keep in mind that LDF cases are only cases which can help shape case law, not garden-variety divorces.

If you are going through a divorce or a separation and are looking for a referral for family law services, please click here.

Together with you in the love of our children,

Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director, Fathers and Families

Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers and Families