Opinion ID: 1843757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: policy recommendations

Text: In addition to recommended changes to the rules and forms, the steering committee, in its annual report, made recommendations regarding the future direction of the Family Court Initiative. In its report, the committee makes certain conclusions and recommendations concerning its responsibilities. First, it concludes that the original notion of the one familyone judge concept, that is, that all court matters involving members of the same family be handled by the same judge, is unrealistic and unworkable. Instead, the committee recommends that our judicial system have an integrated and coordinated approach that insures that any judge handling any matter involving a member of a family will be well informed as to any other pending matters involving another member of that same family. Second, it recommends that a comprehensive array of services and referrals be implemented to assist self-represented litigants. According to the committee, while we have made significant strides in this area by implementing the family law forms and related instructions, we must continue to work towards developing personnel and automation prototypes to enable circuits to provide an integrated approach to family cases and must pursue funding to accomplish this objective. Third, the committee asks that this Court clarify the committee's responsibilities for monitoring and ensuring compliance by the circuits with the mandates of this Court and of the Family Court Initiative. Fourth, the committee asks that it be allowed to make revisions to the forms on an annual basis given the large volume of forms and of the need to change those forms whenever statutes affecting the forms are revised. Finally, the committee asks for this Court's support in obtaining increased state funding of court support services to meet these goals. Before addressing the committee's concerns, we believe that evaluation, review, and perhaps reorganization of both the rules and steering committees may be warranted. At this time, significant overlap exists as to the duties of the two committees. Both committees have provided extremely valuable services in implementing rules and policies regarding the ever- increasing involvement of courts in family matters. The efforts of both committees are to be highly commended. The steering committee has been very instrumental in providing direction for improving assistance and access to the courts for family law litigants. However, a review of the recommendations submitted for rule and form revisions reflects that a significant amount of duplication has occurred in the efforts of the committees. To continue in dual roles appears to be unproductive and costly. To avoid further duplication, we believe that it may be in the best interests of all concerned for the two committees either to have more specifically defined areas of responsibility or to be combined to create one comprehensive body for proceeding with the design and implementation of plans for future development in the area of family law and changes to the rules and forms. As previously mentioned, we also have concerns that we may have further complicated rather than simplified the family law process through the creation of family law divisions and the adoption of the rules and forms. The very fact that the package of forms and rules consists of over 550 pages is evidence of that complication. In reviewing the rules and forms, we believe several changes might simplify the process to enhance access. First, we believe that the judgments should be deleted from the forms and be placed in a bench book for distribution to judges. Pro se litigants should not be required to provide judges with blank judgment forms. It may be that the Conference of Circuit Judges should appoint a select committee to develop appropriate forms for judicial orders and decrees in family law matters. Second, perhaps the forms and accompanying instructions should be deleted entirely from the rule-making process and be grouped instead into packets for distribution according to the type of proceeding. The forms could then be evaluated and changed on an as needed basis and be approved by this Court as simplified forms through opinion rather than being confined by the rule-making process. The Court recognizes that the manner in which family law cases are processed is an access issue which necessitates significant attention because it can have a greater effect on individual litigants than any other area of the law. To that end, we request the committees to make recommendations by September 1, 1998, regarding how best to accomplish the objectives outlined in this section of this opinion.