To the Editor:
I came to your editorial a bit late and from a California perspective [“In a custody battle, the children are always casualties,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 20, 2022].

I’m afraid the piece misses the main point about New York State’s custody laws. The purpose is not to affect the best interests of the children. The goal of the statute is to transfer wealth from families to the lawyering class.

Who could possibly disagree with the notion that we should be concerned with the “best interests of the children?” so palatable in its well-meaning. Yes surely the best-interest standard is no court involvement at all?

The opening salvo to the Altamont piece, “a judge must decide … That is as it should be,” could not be further from the truth. The parents should decide. Custody should be 50/50 by operation of law, unless issues are so serious a court would have been involved even had the family been intact.

In other words, if there is abuse or neglect so serious Child Protective Services would be involved, then custody is litigated, in all other cases, and the lawyers don’t get paid. That is how it should be.

I encourage you to look at other state's efforts at installing presumptions through ballot measures and how the opposition is funded.

Custody battles never have been and never will be about the children. They are by lawyers, for lawyers and of lawyers, to turn a phrase, with the goal of wealth transfer. I encourage you to see through the thin veneer of “best interests.”

John Ervin

San Diego, California