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Pilot programs intended to address changing family court dynamics

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News

Published: January 22, 2019

Today's families don't necessarily reflect the family model around which family courts throughout the United States were developed, a nonprofit organization championing the administration of justice in state courts found in a recent study.

The National Center for State Courts - headquartered in Williamsburg, Va. - plans to take the findings of the Family Justice Initiative, and with the assistance of recommendations from the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators, test the recommendations in four pilot-project courts to be identified as early as next month.

The study found that In family courts, where judges hear cases involving divorces, custody matters and protection orders, a lot is at stake, but cases take longer than they should, and courts don't have good enough information to respond to families' needs.

Today's families are less traditional and less likely to include a married couple. Additionally, most litigants don't hire a lawyer, the study found.

The study, which examined family court practices in 10 large counties nationwide, is part of a National Center for State Courts project.

The Family Justice Initiative was devised to help family courts operate more efficiently by establishing a set of proven practices to resolve cases. The study represents the completion of the first step in the project.

Key findings of the study include:

• Most cases in the study were uncontested, but contested and uncontested cases surprisingly took about the same amount of time. This detail fuels the public perception that the legal system takes too long to achieve a meaningful resolution, undercutting public confidence in the courts;

• About one in four family court cases will continue to reopen, and reopened cases are more likely to involve minor children. Those cases tend to recycle through the courts until those children came of age; and

• Family court data is inadequate and makes it difficult, if not impossible, to do effective case management. Many data systems aren't a good fit with domestic relations cases and don't provide judges, lawyers, mediators and others with enough information to help litigants.

The study was funded by the State Justice Institute, a press release detailed. The center's partners, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, assisted with project.

Founded in 1971 by the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, NCSC provides education, training, technology, management and research services to the nation's state courts.

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