About the Founder
Steve Chu is the founder of Justice for Families. Steve is a parent in Westchester, NY and a father of three beautiful children.
Through his own matrimonial and custody case, he met other parents in similar situations who were either survivors of domestic violence or had been falsely accused of improprieties. He began with informal advocacy such as court-watching their hearings and trials. Many of these parents are pro se litigants like him. He assisted them with doing research; they also traded tips on how to best navigate the legal system. He also wrote letters and arranged meetings with my state legislature representatives to lobby their support for legislation such as Assembly Bill A10087, which “prohibits forensic child custody evaluators who have been terminated for cause from appearing as an expert witness in family court custody and visitation proceedings.”
Over the last two years, he saw a need for these efforts to be better organized. Moreover, there are already a few non-profit organizations founded by parents with similar goals and interests. For the most part, these organizations work independently of one another. With the belief that there is strength in numbers, Steve founded Justice for Families as an umbrella organization to coordinate the collective efforts and promote common goals and to formalize the advocacy work that he was previously doing.
Through Justice for Families, Steve organized and mobilized parents to make our voices heard as constituents by our state legislature representatives. He created letter templates that other parents can use to contact their elected representatives to support legislation. One of the bills we supported was New York Assembly Bill A632, which “relates to training of a forensic evaluator in relation to court-ordered forensic evaluations involving child custody and visitation”. This bill passed both the NY state legislature and was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul.
Another bill we advocated for is Senate Bill S4149, which “[p]rohibits courts from ordering an evaluation of a party or child or allowing into evidence a forensic report created by a forensic evaluator on a party or child to assist such court in a child custody or visitation determination.” We organized parents to write a letter to the sponsoring Senator, Anthony Palumbo, to support this bill.
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