BTW: It seems that even when all parties have hired lawyers, in the family court cases, the lawyers all belong to the same country club. No lawyer will go up against a judge and mount a ‘real’ challenge. They all want to get along, accomplish nothing, and collect parent fees along the way.
Spot on. I am dealing with this myself. An attorney I have hired is reluctant to aggressively go up against the state agency I have issues with because he does not want to damage his current relationships with members of that agency. (Of course he had no problem at all aggressively accepting my retainer.)