The length of a judge's term within these systems varies from nine months in the District of Columbia to a life term upon appointment to the court in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Only Delaware assigns a particular family to a specific judge so that each time family members appear in court on any family law matter, they appear before the same judge. Florida's preferred method is to assign a particular family to a specific judge, although each judicial circuit may adopt its own case assignment method. The term length for a judge assigned to a family law tribunal in the 14 states with separate family courts, divisions, or departments within selected areas of the state ranges from two years in New Mexico to an indeterminate assignment in Kansas. The term length for judges in the nine states that recently have begun the process of implementing pilot or planned family courts varies from one or several days at a time in Maine to permanent judicial assignments in Kentucky.
Maine assigns cases by the traditional manner of assignment at regular intervals.
Georgia and Maryland have not yet determined how to assign cases. The planned family courts in Michigan and Virginia intend to assign one judge to one family for all family law matters. In these states, family members can appear in as many as four courts for resolution of various family legal issues. Within these 17 states, the average number of courts with jurisdiction over family law matters is two.