Video Interview: Jeffery Leving discusses mission to defend Dads’ Rights
Dads’ Rights authority and attorney Jeffery M. Leving sits down for an interview about his legal practice, his fight to ensure divorced or separated parents have equal rights when it come to raising children, and why providing equal rights in parenting is important in ensuring that children achieve their greatest potential. Watch the full interview and clips below
By Ray Hanania
Author and Dads’ Rights attorney Jeffery M. Leving said his legal practice to defend dads’ rights is driven by ensuring children receive the best upbringing possible.
Children have a better chance of becoming successful later in life if they have access to and support from both parents, Leving said. Too often, though, children find themselves with only one parent in an environment that reflects the anger and abusiveness caused by divorce.
Leving has become nationally recognized as a legal champion to ensure children have access to both parents and defends “Dads’ Rights.”
In an interview this week, Leving said he believes the legal system is biased against fathers in divorce cases.
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“I believe the answer to that is yes, but things are changing. When I served on President Obama’s national finance committee, that’s exactly what I told him and we discussed that. And we discussed a factual basis to my feelings about legislative initiatives that created laws that were very harmful to fathers paternal involvement and our society.”
Leving defined the term “Dads’ Rights” explaining that it is all about ensuring that both the mother and father are treated equally and fairly and have access to their children as they grow up.
“There are fathers and their children who are struggling across the country and they need help to protect their rights,” Leving said.
“Dads’ Rights, it means gender equality. It means social justice, due process, equal protection,” Leving said.
“It means that we have to focus on the survival of our society, so fathers are not disenfranchised from their children and kicked out of the lives of their children. Fathers are critical. … Fathers are parents, too. When a dad gets divorced that doesn’t mean he is divorced from his children.”
Leving said he became a lawyer with a personal interest in defending fathers, noting he is the child of divorced parents.
“It even impacted me when I was a child,” Leving said.
“When I was growing up on the South Side of Chicago, my parents were divorced and my dad, I felt, was disenfranchised. My brother ended up in an orphanage. There was sort of a hole in the family without the consistency of paternal involvement. That’s when I first realized that fathers are parents, too, and children need dads.”
Leving said he has a strong message for fathers to not surrender their rights.
“The first thing I need to do is to develop a bond so I can get the factual information I need to define the issues, because not every case is the same. But I always tell these dads, don’t give up hope,” Leving said.
“If my clients give up hope and throw in the towel, they may lose a chance to protect their children, reconnect with their children and do everything possible so their children can have a great childhood and a great future.”
There are several things fathers in divorce should not do, Leving said.
“Generally, don’t leave the home. There are exceptions to the rule but if a father, for example, is a victim of physical and emotional abuse and he walks out of the home and leaves the children there when there is a likelihood they are also being victimized, then the children remain targets,” Leving said.
“So, it is really, really risky for fathers just to walk out especially when their children are at risk. And also when they do that, it establishes the status quo that the mother is the custodial parent. There are always exceptions to the rule but generally, it is not a good idea to walk away especially when by walking away you are leaving children in an abusive and dangerous environment of victimization.”
Leving said defending fathers can be an uphill fight in a system that often favors the mother, but he stressed the issue is not being “against” the mother but rather to ensure both parents are treated equally.
“I think mothers are critical in parenting. I think fathers are critical in parenting. I think every child should have the opportunity to have a great mother and a great father,” Leving explained.
“I don’t believe any child should lose a dad because of gender bias or parental alienation or something is broken in the system. Our children are the future of our society and that is really, really important. We don’t want anything broken in our system that can cause fathers to become an endangered species because paternal involvement can have great effects, positive affects on children.”
Asked to explain “equal parenting rights,” Leving said that, “Every state, specifically in Illinois, must have a law supporting equal parenting time, not just for the rights of fathers but for the rights of children and the rights of a family … There should be a presumption that shared parenting, equal parenting is in the best interests of the children. Because the best parent is both parents. The best parent is both parents so we need to start out all litigation with the presumption that there should be equal parenting time.”
Leving said that the most reliable predictor of crime in America is father absence.
“Fathers are parents too, and children need dads,” Leving said. “Getting fathers reconnected with their children instead of pushing them out of their lives would help nurture children who are the future of our society.”
Leving has authored several books that are available at many bookstores and online. The books “could lead to legislative initiatives, gender fairness, and ensure that fathers are treated fairly, and children are safe from harm and abusive situations,” he said.
The books include: “Fathers’ Rights,” which is published in English, Chinese, and Spanish; “Divorce Wars”; and, “How to be a Good Divorced Dad” with a letter of support from President Barack Obama and a Resolution from the Illinois House of Representatives supporting the book, plus one from Cardinal Francis George endorsing the book.
Leving’s practice includes 22 attorneys based in Chicago who he leads to represents the rights of fathers across the country. The Leving Law firm concentrates in matrimonial and family law, defends father falsely accused, and also helps dads and children who are victims of catastrophic injury.
He has represented clients across the country, including in California, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, and Massachusetts.
For more information on Dads Rights, visit his website at www.DadsRights.com. Or, call his offices at 312-356-DADS. You can also follow Jeffery Leving on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at “DadsRights”
Every Saturday at 9 AM, Leving also hosts a radio show on Dads’ Rights, sharing stories of father successes in remaining active in their children’s lives. The radio show is broadcast on Power 92.3 FM.
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