Families in court: will a family court do it better?

✍ Scribed by H. Ted Rubin

• Book ID: 101281038
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 192 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-3936
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0798(199821)16:2<169::aid-bsl305>3.0.co;2-a

✦ Synopsis

Family-related case ®lings in the civil courts, including juvenile matters, exceed 7,000,000 ®lings annually. These cases typically are handled in several dierent trial courts. Reform proposals would create a uni®ed family court, with broad jurisdiction over child and family matters. Family court proponents anticipate bene®ts of greater judicial continuity with a family, better informed jurists and judicial decisions, more client comfort, and better coordinated intervention services. This article reviews present court handling of family-related cases and proceeds to describe family court developments in the states. It then presents each of the potential bene®ts, discussing the problems they're intended to overcome and the approaches courts are using or might use to achieve these bene®ts. The author supports the family court direction, while recognizing the paucity of family court evaluation. More assessment is encouraged.