In Orange County and Santa Clara County, the walls between the branches of government have been eroded by political appointments, conflicts of interest, and undisclosed relationships, resulting in a loss of public trust and financial resources.
The Santa Clara County Bar Association has lost more than half its revenue, shed hundreds of members and volunteers, and is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit, leaving it in serious financial trouble and unable to protect the public from shady lawyers.
Despite decades of warnings, California judges continue to appoint unvetted attorneys as minors counsel and “parenting coordinators” at significant cost to families and taxpayers, with a lack of transparency and oversight.
California’s family court system is under scrutiny for its use of minors counsel, who are appointed to represent children in custody disputes and can wield significant influence with little accountability, often at great financial cost to families and taxpayers.
A father is paying nearly $1,000 a week for court-ordered supervised visitation with his 4-year-old son, despite having no criminal record or history of domestic violence, while a political relationship between the judge and the mother’s attorney is at the heart of a judicial disqualification motion.
California parents are forced to pay private monitors hundreds of dollars per visit to see their own children under court-ordered supervision, while the state’s Professional Supervised Visitation system profits from family court dysfunction through secretive business training funded by taxpayers.
Two court observers were evicted from Judge Cindy Hendrickson’s courtroom in Santa Clara County Superior Court on February 7, 2025, after serving her a judicial disqualification motion alleging political bias and undisclosed conflicts of interest, while Hendrickson responded by downplaying her ties to WomenSV and failing to address her co-appointment with Ford to the county’s Domestic Violence Council.
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