[Jones, 2007] LAW SCHOOLS UNLIKELY TO BOYCOTT MAGAZINE RANKINGS: FALLOUT FROM LIBERAL ARTS BOYCOTT OF ‘U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT’ SURVEY MINIMAL -- SO FAR. Many of the organization's members have signed letters criticizing the rankings as inaccurate. Also panning the rankings through their own letters or endorsements of other groups' letters have been the Association of American Law Schools; the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; the Law School Admission Council; and NALP, formerly the National Association of Law Placement ...
[Law School Admission Council, 2006] DEANS SPEAK OUT. A ranking system that exemplifies the shortcomings of all “by the numbers” schemes is the one produced annually by U.S. News & World Report. While ignoring the variables listed above, as do all numbers-based ranking systems, the U.S. News rankings purport to be derived from mathematical formulae based on data common to all law schools. The “weights” attached to the variables are arbitrary and reflect only the view of the magazine’s editors ... (Signatories)
[Klein & Hamilton, 1998] THE VALIDITY OF THE U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT RANKING OF ABA LAW SCHOOLS. There are several problems with the US News evaluation system. One of the most important of these is that US News does not consider many factors, such as the educational benefits of attending a certain school or the quality of its faculty ...
Dear Dr. Merten, George Mason is the father of…
17 February 2005
Miss Veronique Wyvell, RN
Mothers and the Law
7831 Enola Street, #TA7
McLean, Virginia 22102
Alan G. Merten
President
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Dear Dr. Merten,
George Mason is the father of the Bill of Rights and many fine things are said about “his” School of Law and its recently appointed dean, the accomplished and popular Daniel D. Polsby. I read in the February 8, 2005 Docket where Provost Peter Stearns praises the new dean,
“… he offers wisdom and humor, both commodities in short supply… he offers a stimulating vision of change and continuity for the school.”
I am an ordinary citizen in comparison to George Mason and Daniel Polsby, but I traveled to Richmond anyway earlier this month on behalf of the special needs of Virginia’s more than 50,000 children caught in the middle of court-driven and court-sanctioned High-Conflict divorce and parental alienation[/persecution] cases to offer my own “stimulating vision of change and continuity” for the practice of family law in discussions of proposed domestic relations legislation and improvements to our current child custody and visitation code. The 2 February House and Senate Courts of Justice Committee meetings were generously attended by aggrieved mothers and fathers.
These days I offer more “wisdom” than “humor.” Let me say that weak justice robs good parents not of their wisdoms but of their reputations, their relationships, their jobs, their savings, their children, their homes, their sanities, and their senses of humor. And weak justice causes humorless but wise parents, who are also good, to question the often cruel and unusual attitude and approach of Virginia lawyers and Virginia judges in deciding the best interests of children. Good parents see strong justice “in short supply”:
“… common inequities in state family courts are also directly and indirectly responsible for murders and suicides amongst the most estranged families. Every week… approximately 300 fathers and 75 mothers commit suicide in this country, with the majority of these senseless deaths directly attributable to victimization by family courts. These suicides are often committed by passive parents, due to hopelessness in a system fraught with injustice, but the more aggressive parents occasionally snap at the weight of suffering such anguish, and violently take out their desperation on estranged partners, sometimes even murdering them, and possibly the children, before also killing themselves…”
(http://www.familyrightsassociation.com/news/archive/2004/sept/coalition_of_parents_unite.htm)
In short supply are the lawyers and the judges who construe and administer justice in ways that protect children caught in the middle of highly conflicted divorce and parental alienation[/persecution] cases. It is no secret that in the “contest” for custody cronyism and chicanery prevail, overriding our codes and trampling our constitutions. IT IS NO SECRET that the protection of children caught in the middle of High-Conflict divorce and parental alienation[/persecution] cases is unprofitable. Bad law produces good business.
I see in the quotes from Docket Editor Robert Deal’s article, Polsby Named Dean of Law School, the new dean’s preoccupation with the fragility of ranking:
“Our overall mission is to upgrade the value of the George Mason University School of Law credentials. We will keep getting stronger faculty… Our U.S. News ranking is not just going to keep going up without going down at some point… At the level we’re now at it’s all very close, and you see how the numbers come out each time. We now need to take steps to affect the long term trends. George Mason’s faculty and staff… have earned it a growing national reputation. We aim to keep that going and growing.”
Ranking is indeed fragile. So are children. As Chief Justice Frank D. Celebrezze of the Ohio Supreme Court wrote,
“While statutes can be amended and case law can be distinguished or overruled, we take judicial notice of the fact that children grow up only once. When a mistake is made in a custody dispute, the harmful effects are irrevocable.”
Injured rankings can be fixed. Injured minds of young children are much harder to fix. As Dean Polsby said,
“… it’s all very close… We now need to take steps to affect the long term trends.”
I also see in the faculty directory from GMU Law School the names of six errant judges. I have been before all six. Five of the six have seriously undermined in one way or another my Due Process rights. A good father I know and defend in my December letter to Chief Judge Michael McWeeny is all too familiar, however, with the sixth judge’s arrogance and his capacity to obstruct Due Process for good parents and his inhumane rulings that disregard and depreciate the rights of the human child.
I wish to remind Dean Polsby that while bad law is good business for courthouses it is not good business for law schools.
My enclosures tell about depraved practitioners of child custody law, the sick speakers for sad children, who manhandle and exploit in the name of “best interests.” Your own law school honors six such “speakers” with adjunct professorships: they are Substitute Judge Sandra Havrilak and Judges Jonathan Thacher, Robert Wooldridge, Stanley Klein, Dennis Smith, and R. Terrence Ney. All are Distinguished Adjunct Professors with the exception of sub-judge Havrilak. Also lacking distinction and connected to the law school as guest-teacher for the students of adjunct professor Havrilak is errant judge number seven, Jane Marum Roush. The seven are long-time trial court colleagues who share the same disreputable Fairfax County Circuit Court bench.
If your “overall mission is to upgrade the value of the George Mason University School of Law credentials” by “getting stronger faculty” it is no wonder that “it’s all very close.” Substitute Judge Sandra L. Havrilak, Judge Jonathan C. Thacher, and Judge Jane Marum Roush are guaranteed “to affect the long term trends” by causing the reputation of your law school to go and to grow in the wrong direction. Each is involved in a case of judicial corruption [brought] before the Supreme Court of Virginia in November 2004 by an honest GMU graduate. Your “steps” should be the removal from your faculty of all three. Indeed, all three “merit” removal from the bench. And like the judges in the local courts of “Boss” Tweed -- jail time.
Hundreds or more local mothers and fathers know your Distinguished Adjunct Professors as dangerous Barrators who damage children and destroy lives. Yes, the seven Fairfax County Circuit Court judges who are also GMU adjunct professors specialize in the practice of inciting groundless judicial proceedings, which is a criminal offense.
This is called Barratry.
It is the engine that runs the family courts of Fairfax County. It is an engine fueled by judge-endorsed and judge-perpetrated slander and extortion of good parents.
The design is so easy to see, so simple to understand. False accusations by law-schooled lawyers begin by robbing good parents of their reputations, their relationships, their jobs, their savings, their children, their homes, and their sanities.
This is called Slander.
Then, law-schooled judges watch, and gloat, as good parents scramble to legally restore and legally regain some of all that the courts have stolen from them.
This is called Extortion.
“And the judges enjoy the show,” I complained to Senator Janet Howell, more than a year ago, in a neighborhood meeting of constituents.
For some good parents, the stress from chronic judicial misuse and abuse of authority eventually exceeds the pain of breaking ties with their children. Thus overwhelmed with emotional strain and mental exhaustion, these good parents then cope by dropping out of the lives of their children. Or they kill themselves.
PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF FAMILY DISSOLUTION: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS can save lives but only if our law-makers and decision-makers decide to adopt or adapt its well-intentioned guidelines and only if our law school leaders and law school students decide to assist the honorable purpose of its publisher, the prestigious American Law Institute:
“The Institute, through a careful and deliberative process, drafts and then publishes various restatements of the law, model codes, and other proposals for legal reform to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work.” (Michael Greenwald, Press Release, 15 May 2002)
Mr. Greenwald commends ALI’s Principles for making “a major contribution to the better administration of justice in an area [family law] too often marked by inequity.”
Inequities, we know, bury hundreds of fathers and mothers and children each month in America. I wonder if your law school teaches its students of that consequence?
Dr. Merten, please accept my own personal copy of Principles. It is a gift from Virginia’s 3,500 children who will this year join the thousands upon thousands of young Virginians already caught in the middle (borrowed from child specialists Garrity, C.B., and Baris, M.A., Caught in the Middle: Protecting the Children of High-Conflict Divorce, authors of the acclaimed Working with High-Conflict Families of Divorce: A Guide for Professionals) of court-driven and court-sanctioned High-Conflict divorce and parental alienation[/persecution] cases -- caught in the middle of a Racket.
I am including for the benefit of all addressees the ALI Catalog Entry to explain that PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF FAMILY DISSOLUTION: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS is now available both online and in softbound (all other enclosures are available upon request).
Finally, I say to Dean Polsby and to all law school deans in Virginia protect your ranking by protecting first the child-victims of courtroom abuses at the unclean hands of law-schooled grownups. Chapter 6.1 in Title 20 is in need, too, of spring-cleaning and ALI, our ally, is here to help. It is soon spring. Let us all get to work.
Sincerely yours,
Veronique Wyvell, RN
BSN, George Mason University, 1982
Co-Director, Mothers and the Law (MATL)
Enclosures:
Appendix / 09-01-04 / Virginia Supreme Court
Tort Action / 12-16-04 / Fairfax County Circuit Court
Writ of Error Coram Nobis & Appendix II / 12-16-04 / Virginia Supreme Court
Amended Petition for Rehearing & Appendix III / 01-19-05 / Virginia Supreme Court
Statement of Facts by Appellant Miss Wyvell / 02-01-05 / Virginia Supreme Court
JIRC Complaint Forms Re: Substitute Judge Sandra Havrilak / 12-30-04 & 01-22-05
VSB Complaint Forms Re: Attorney Sandra Havrilak / 12-26-04 & 01-20-05
Wyvell Letter to McWeeny / 12-18-04
Press Release by Michael Greenwald / 05-15-02
ALI Catalog Entry / How to Order PRINCIPLES
Copy to 49 named Addressees:
Jodie Allen
Managing Editor
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
James C. Bodie
Intake Counsel
Virginia State Bar
707 East Main Street, Suite 1500
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Jeffrey A. Brauch
Dean
Regent University School of Law
1000 Regent University Drive
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23464
Lynda Butler
Vice Dean and Chancellor Professor of Law
William & Mary School of Law
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Howard M. Casway
Assistant Attorney General
Commonwealth of Virginia
900 East Main Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Francis J. Catania, Jr.
Associate Professor of Law
Widener University School of Law
4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, Delaware 19803
Article LEARNING FROM THE PROCESS OF DECISION: THE PARENTING PLAN
(http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview/archives/2001/3/cat1.pdf)
James H. Chamblin
Chief Judge
20th Judicial Circuit of Virginia
18 E. Market Street
Leesburg, Virginia 20178
Sandra T. Chinn-Gilstrap
Secretary
Virginia Women Attorneys Association
P.O. Box 513
Richmond, Virginia 23218
T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr.
Board of Visitors, Regent University
President
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc.
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, Delaware 19807
Jeannemarie Devolites Davis
Co-Patron SB1231 Visitation Guidelines
State Senator, District 34
P.O. Box 936
Vienna, Virginia 22183
Sidney O. Dewberry
Rector, Board of Visitors
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Laurie E. Forbes
President
Virginia Women Attorneys Association
P.O. Box 513
Richmond, Virginia 23218
Robert E. Freer, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Visitors
Regent University
1000 Regent University Drive
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23464
Ronald Grignol
President
Fathers For Virginia
5241 Bally Castle Circle
Alexandria, Virginia 22315
Donald M. Haddock
Chief Judge
18th Judicial Circuit of Virginia
520 King Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Susan Headden
Assistant Managing Editor - Investigative Projects
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Olga Hernandez
President
The League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area
4026 Hummer Road
Annandale, Virginia 22003
Katie Hobbs
President
The League of Women Voters of Virginia
1685 Union Mills Road
Troy, Virginia 22974
Catherine M. Hudgins
Board of Supervisors
Hunter Mill District
North County Governmental Center
12000 Bowman Towne Drive
Reston, Virginia 20190
John C. Jeffries, Jr.
Dean and Professor of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Teresa Klaassen
Secretary, Board of Visitors
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Barry F. Kowalski
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Special Legal Counsel, Criminal Section, PHB
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530
L. Scott Lingamfelter
Patron HB2294 Visitation Guidelines
State Delegate, District 31
5420 Lomax Way
Woodbridge, Virginia 22193
Michael McCormick
Executive Director
American Coalition for Fathers & Children
1718 M Street NW, PMB #187
Washington, DC 20036
Robert F. McDonnell
Board of Visitors, Regent University
Chairman, House Courts of Justice Committee
State Delegate, District 84
P.O. Box 62244
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23466
Anne McGrath
Assistant Managing Editor - Special Projects
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
D’Arcy McGreer
Executive Secretary
Fathers For Virginia
7710 Jansen Drive
Springfield, Virginia 22152
Michele B. McQuigg
Patron HB2106 Parenting Plans
State Delegate, District 51
P.O. Box 8
Occoquan, Virginia 22125
Michael P. McWeeny
Chief Judge
19th Judicial Circuit of Virginia
4110 Chain Bridge Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
R. H. Melton
Metro Staff Writer - Richmond Bureau
Washington Post
1001 E. Broad Street, Suite 420
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Kenneth Montero
Assistant Counsel
Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission
Supreme Court Building
100 North 9th Street, Suite 661
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Albert N. Moskowitz
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
Chief, Criminal Section, PHB
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530
William T. Newman, Jr.
Chief Judge
17th Judicial Circuit of Virginia
1425 North Courthouse Road
Arlington, Virginia 22201
David F. Partlett
Vice President, Dean, and Professor of Law
Washington and Lee University School of Law
Lewis Hall
Lexington, Virginia 24450
Daniel D. Polsby
Dean and Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, Virginia 22201
Victoria Pope
Managing Editor
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Richard Bowen Potter
Chief Judge
31st Judicial Circuit of Virginia
9311 Lee Avenue
Manassas, Virginia 20110
Frederick M. Quayle
Patron SB1231 Visitation Guidelines
State Senator, District 13
3808 Poplar Hill Road, Suite E
Chesapeake, Virginia 23321
W. Taylor Reveley, III
Dean and Professor of Law
William & Mary School of Law
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Jodi Schneider
Special Projects Editor
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Rodney A. Smolla
Dean and Professor of Law
School of Law
University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia 23173
Linda Q. Smyth
Board of Supervisors
Providence District
8739 Lee Highway
Fairfax, Virginia 22031
Peter N. Stearns
University Provost
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Kenneth W. Stolle
Chairman, Senate Courts of Justice Committee
State Senator, District 8
2101 Parks Avenue, Suite 700
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451
Alotta Taylor
Chair-at-Large
Commission For Women
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 318
Fairfax, Virginia 22035
Onzlee Ware
Co-Patron HB2294 Visitation Guidelines
State Delegate, District 11
P.O. Box 1745
Roanoke, Virginia 24008
Mark R. Warner
Governor
Commonwealth of Virginia
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, Virginia 23218
Jane Woods
Secretary of Health and Human Resources
Commonwealth of Virginia
P.O. Box 1475
Richmond, Virginia 23218
Mortimer Zuckerman
Chairman, Editor-in-Chief
US News & World Report
1050 Thomas Jefferson Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
... The [Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars] Division of United States Studies was established to stimulate research and reflection on the problems of American society, politics, and culture. Through its publications, scholarly workshops, conferences, and meetings with public officials and others, the program seeks to deepen knowledge of relations among ideas, institutions, social movements, and public policies ... -Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars / One Woodrow Wilson Plaza / 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. / Washington, D.C. 20004 / 202-691-4149 / usstudies@wilsoncenter.org
[SPECIAL NOTE BY VW] "Frequent Filers" are listed by name on the Mommy Go Bye-Bye blog. For why Virginia citizens should be aware of them please visit http://mommygobyebye-virginia.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-one-pretend-mommy-is-doing-about.html and understand that “Frequent Filers” don't deserve your business...Let it be known that since I began doing last January weekly and monthly counts of motions submitted by lawyers (and substitute judges) we've been seeing here in Fairfax County a noticeable decline in the number of pleadings filed each week. I hope that I've been able, by making that activity a public record, to decrease the harassment felt by innocent parents (defendant-mothers and defendant-fathers) at the hands of lawyers and sub-judges who are over-aggressive and unprincipled and judges (and sub-judges) who won't stop them...
Veronique Wyvell, RN
Member, Fairfax County Network Against Family Abuse
Founder, MOMMY GO BYE-BYE: Mothers Against Unjust Law
7831 Enola Street, #TA7, McLean, Virginia 22102
VWyvell@patriot.net
MAUL (Mothers Against Unjust Law) Goals:
Rebuttable PRESUMPTIONS Against Custody for Batterers
PPAs (Parenting Plan Agreements) before Litigation
Moratorium on CCEs (Child Custody Evaluations)
MINIMUM Parent-Time Schedules (UTAH Code)
JURY Trials (in Domestic Relations Cases)
PROTECTIVE Parent Reform Acts
DIGITAL Courtroom Records
ALI's Approximation Rule
TERM LIMITS for Judges
. . .
ADDENDA
Related Links . . .
MARK E. RUBIN SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE GOVERNOR: “I can assure you that this information will be considered if Ms. Havrilak’s name comes up…”
SANDRA HAVRILAK VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT APPELLEE BAILS OUT OF BAIL CASE Barratrous lawyer and substitute judge disturbed my peace and then some
STARTING WITH SANDY AND THE STORY OF SUMMER /Justice prostituted when divorce lawyers agree to represent fathers who abuse their children
PREMEDITATED RULINGS: When the judge picks your expert (and your ex’s lawyer picks the judge)
. . .
