Family Court Freak Show

Frank Parlato Exposes a Judicial Circus Where Judges Play God and Families Pay the Price

By Richard Luthmann

Frank Parlato doesn’t mince words. “Family Court isn’t broken,” he writes. “It’s doing exactly what it was built to do.”

Parlato, a veteran investigative journalist and editor of the Frank Report, has launched a blistering series targeting the secretive and often sinister world of America’s Family Courts.

His latest exposés argue that these courts aren’t failing due to incompetence—they’re succeeding at a sinister mission: controlling parents, enriching insiders, and destroying families.

Family Court Freak Show: Built to Break—Not to Fix

“Family Court is not a system of justice,” Parlato writes. “It is a business, a hierarchy, and a control mechanism.” Judges, lawyers, therapists, and government contractors form what he describes as a “private club” operating outside oversight and accountability​.

In “Family Court Isn’t Broken — It’s Doing What It Was Built to Do,” Parlato reveals how this system profits from prolonged litigation.

Custody fights are extended, not resolved. Protective parents are punished. And the more chaos, the more money changes hands.

“The longer the case, the greater the billable hours,” he writes.

The victims? Parents, usually mothers, who try to shield their children from abuse—and the children themselves.

“The family court system removes children from good parents and gives them to predators, abusers, and the highest bidder,” Parlato warns​.

Family Court Freak Show: Judges on Thrones, Children in Chaos

In another article, “Where the Judge is King,” Parlato draws a damning comparison: “Family Court is a monarchy. The judge is king. His word is law.”

Unlike criminal or civil courts, where juries, open records, and appellate oversight exist, Family Court judges reign unchecked. Their decisions are often sealed, their discretion nearly unlimited.

Parlato calls this “unconstitutional, un-American, and deeply corrupt.”

He describes a system where judges routinely remove children from protective parents without evidence.

“There is no jury, and in some cases, no transcript. The judge decides everything—and you can’t question it.”

One example cited involves a mother punished for refusing to send her children to a father accused of abuse. Her refusal was framed as “alienation,” a vague term often weaponized by court-appointed “experts.”

Parlato notes these experts—often therapists and guardians ad litem—get paid to support the court’s narrative, not to protect the children.

“They’re not neutral,” he writes. “They’re part of the racket.”

In this closed courtroom drama, facts matter less than who controls the script.

And judges, unchecked and largely unaccountable, write the ending.

Family Court Freak Show: The Fight Is Fake—The Trauma Is Real

In “The Fight Is Fake—But the Trauma and Destruction Is Real,” Parlato peels back another layer of the fraud.

He accuses Family Court of creating a theatrical illusion of conflict between parents. In reality, he says, both sides are often manipulated into endless battles by lawyers and judges who thrive on chaos.

“The court engineers the conflict,” he writes. “They bait the parents into fighting, prolonging the process, and racking up fees.”

Parlato says the court uses parental alienation claims as a catch-all excuse to reverse custody, silence protective parents, and ignore abuse. Often, these claims are backed by little or no evidence—but once made, they are hard to shake.

In one case, a mother lost custody after telling the court her ex had molested their daughter. Instead of investigating the claim, the judge accused her of lying to “alienate” the child.

“She was smeared, punished, and labeled an unfit mother,” Parlato writes.

Meanwhile, the accused father got custody—and the mother was ordered to pay his legal fees.

“The Family Court turns victims into villains,” Parlato states. “Then it makes them pay for it.”

Family Court Freak Show: No Oversight, No Justice

Parlato’s reporting paints Family Court as a parallel legal system—immune to reform, hostile to scrutiny, and designed to serve insiders, not families.

“There’s no jury. No public access. And very little appellate review,” he writes.

The result is a perfect storm for abuse. Judges act with impunity. Court-appointed players get rich. And protective parents who speak out risk retaliation.

Parlato calls for immediate reforms: public trials, appellate oversight, jury involvement in custody decisions, and full access to court records.

“Family Court must not be allowed to operate in darkness,” he argues.

He also suggests ending the use of unlicensed custody evaluators and banning court actors from receiving payments from both sides.

“This is basic conflict of interest law—yet Family Court ignores it.”

His articles are gaining traction. Whistleblowers, journalists, and parental rights advocates are sharing them widely. Survivors of the system say Parlato’s work finally gives voice to their suffering.

“The people inside Family Court know it’s broken,” Parlato concludes. “But they won’t fix it—because for them, it’s working perfectly.”