From my own experience, and the attorneys I've talked to, and the other fathers/husbands, certain practices are rampant. False allegations of abuse are regularly made by the female, which grant injunctions/TROs, ex parte, which are then used to withhold children. Perjury is never prosecuted. Not ever. Judges don't care about timelines, and regularly ignore the statutory limits on holding hearings, meaning that a TRO can be in effect indefinitely without a single hearing. Judges regularly don't read motions, do not rule on them.
Time is on the side of the most shameless liar. Both attorneys make more money in this kind of case, because it takes time, its very litigious. Both attorneys have every incentive to not just not deescalate, but escalate the situation. If you are representing yourself, they will try to overwhelm you with paperwork - my wife had one attorney who would, instead of filing motions, would keep appending to a single motion and resubmitting the entire omnibus. They filed invalid motions, they filed hearsay. The entire premise of the actions were to delay, keep the kids, increase the pain until I gave into all demands. From what I've heard, this is a common tactic, because it works. To hold out means to give up your kids for years. Everything, and I mean everything here, is in violation of statute, and no-one in power gives two fucks. Plus at the end of it they count on the fact that you're too exhausted to pursue any kind of remedy, and in fact your faith in the system has been so destroyed that you're convinced that it would do no good anyway. Like I said, they do it because it works.