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Saturday, August 12, 2006
Ind. Courts - A consultant to the Indiana Supreme Court talks in Nebraska about family court system
In this entry from August 7, the ILB quotes from an Indianapolis Star editorial proposing the establishment of a family court in Marion County.
Today, the Fremont (Nebraska) Tribune reports this story:
Frances Hill, who serves on the Indiana Family Court steering committee, offered this sample scenario Friday:Here is a link to the family court project, from the Indiana Courts website.A mother is divorcing a father who faces a charge of drunken driving and also of child neglect due to their children staying in the home of his girlfriend whose children have head lice. Also, the divorcing couple's son is in juvenile court, facing his own charges.
“This is what's happening, more and more,” said Hill. “People having children without the benefit of marriage, moms moving in with boyfriends with their own kids.”
When a family's situation becomes complicated to the point of several cases pending, the family court system can be of great help, Hill said.
“A judge trying to make a custody decision may not know about other charges,” she said. With the “one judge-one family” system, that problem could be alleviated because all cases would land on the judge's desk.
But because judges tend to specialize, and because of what Hill called “turf issues,” and because of scheduling problems, information-sharing between multiple courts may be used instead to speed up proceedings and avoid manipulation of the court by defendants - some judges definitely want to avoid, Hill said .
If all parties involved - family members, attorneys, law enforcement officials, social service and probation officers - are in the same courtroom at the same time, hearing the same testimony, such manipulation can be avoided, Hill said.
* * *The Indiana Family Court system is a cooperative effort created in 1999 by Indiana's legislature and supreme court to coordinate families with multiple cases pending before multiple judges.
Safety and stress issues unique to family litigation, the role of a family in affecting an individual's behavior, and a need for timeliness and consistency in judicial rulings involving children were all considered in the development of the system.
The family court concept maintains case coordination is necessary to avoid uninformed, inconsistent or delayed rulings for families, with parties and attorneys encouraged to fully disclose information about a family's legal cases.
Multiple-case coordination include the “one judge - one family” model; information sharing between multiple courts; and facilitation and pre-trial conferences.
Applications for family court status are offered every two years to all Indiana counties. Applications include information about the county's current judicial system and a request for a family court grant of between $100,000 and $400,000 per year, for a two-year period. Smaller counties are encouraged to form multiple-county projects to share resources and avoid “re-inventing the wheel.”
Applications are filed with the Division of State Court Administration. The Indiana Supreme Court selects the counties that will serve as pilot family court projects.
Currently, 17 Indiana counties have family court systems. Programming has expanded to include nonadversarial dispute resolution and other programming for high-risk, low-income families.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 12, 2006 06:39 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts