National Family Court Watch Project © Renee E. Beeker 2004-2013 University of Mount Union Alliance, OH, Spring 2013

National Family Court Watch Project© Renee E. Beeker 2004-2013

University of Mount Union Alliance, OH, Spring 2013

The NFCWP is the first known program to use a standardized observational instrument nationwide.

We observe and report trends that the data collection reveals.

The ultimate goal is to work with the public and judicial system to create methods and procedures that help resolve the problems we are finding in family courts across the country.

Just the appearance of a Court Watch can impact the behaviors of the participants in the Courtroom.

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© Renee E. Beeker 2004-2013 University of Mount Union Alliance, OH, Spring 2013 Do Not Cite Without Permission, Data Under Evaluation

Family Court has become a dangerous place for women and children, especially if abuse is an issue in the case.

More and more rulings are being made in empty courtrooms with NO witnesses except those involved and the court transcripts (if at all). Court Reporting Services are being eliminated by courts across the country. Here is the notice from a California court. “As a result of statewide budget reductions, official court reporters are no longer provided by the Court in proceedings for which such services are not legally mandated. These proceedings include civil law and motion and family law matters.” http://www.napa.courts.ca.gov/general-info/court-reporters

“Studies show batterers convince authorities that the victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody in approximately 70% of challenged cases.” American Judges Association. (n.d.). Forms of Emotional Battering. In Domestic Violence (p. 5). Retrieved from: http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html

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http://www.napa.courts.ca.gov/general-info/court-reporters

http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html

http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html

Examples

To adhere to the mission of the Washtenaw County Trial Court and to provide families with a variety of dispute resolution and service opportunities characterized by:

Fair treatment of all family members.Timely dispositions of all family matters consistent with the circumstances

of the individual case in compliance with statutory, court rule and case law requirements.

Enhancement of the quality of the litigation process.Building the public confidence in the court as an institution.

http://washtenawtrialcourt.org/family

Through these units, the goal of the Oakland County Circuit Court Family Division is to make decisions concerning families and provide quality services to families in a fair, timely, and dignified manner.

http://www.oakgov.com/courts/circuit/Pages/division_committee/family-overview.aspx

© Renee E. Beeker 2004-2013 University of Mount Union Alliance, OH, Spring 2013 Do Not Cite Without Permission, Data Under Evaluation 4

http://washtenawtrialcourt.org/family

http://www.oakgov.com/courts/circuit/Pages/division_committee/family-overview.aspx

Data taken from observations by the National Family Court Watch Project

Data taken from Family Court Views online survey where 141 respondents gave their comments about their Family Court Experience

Data from interviews of two professionals who are working within the family law arena.

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Law students Student Interns Legal Professionals Homemakers Other interested professional

and non-professionals

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What is your age?

Answer OptionsResponse Percent

Response Count

18-25 1.9% 226-49 55.8% 5850-64 35.6% 3765-older 3.8% 4Prefer not to answer 2.9% 3

answered question 104skipped question 38


What is your ethnicity?


Response Count

American Indian or Native American 1.0% 1Asian or Pacific Islander 1.0% 1Black/African American 1.9% 2Hispanic/Latino 6.8% 7White/Caucasian 81.6% 84Other 2.9% 3Prefer not to answer 4.9% 5


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What is your gender?


Response Count

Female 90.5% 95Male 7.6% 8Prefer not to answer 1.9% 2


What is your educational level?


Response Count

Some high school, no diploma 1.0% 1High school graduate, diploma or the equivalent (i.e. GED)

8.7% 9

Some college credit, no degree 26.0% 27Trade/technical/vocational training 2.9% 3Associate degree 11.5% 12Bachelor’s degree 21.2% 22Master’s degree 19.2% 20Professional degree 4.8% 5Doctorate 2.9% 3Prefer not to answer 1.9% 2


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Link to Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFKPYKJ

How were you involved in the Family Court?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFKPYKJ

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613 Forms Returned

Which state was your court experience in?

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Court Watchers collected data from various matters

Custody 164 Divorce 217 Visitation 138 Violence 113 Child Support 102 Property Division 69 Fees (legal) 31 Partner Support (alimony) 31

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Why were you in family court?Percentages will add up to more than 100 % because of cases with

multiple issues


31% of all cases were not heard or completed34% of the cases observed had 1 or more litigants who were not present

28% of the time the Respondent were not present78% of the time when one or both of the litigants were not present, rulings were still made (to clarify there has to be a party or lawyer present when rulings are made. I believe however, parties should be in court to hear rulings that involve them first hand.)

Litigants appearing Pro Se(advocating on one's own behalf before a court) 65% were Petitioner 54% were Respondent

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23% of all the cases observed where litigants were not present involved Domestic Violence in some way

State Violence Total Cases Percent of Total Cases New York 48 104 46% New Jersey 14 33 42% Michigan 38 436 9%

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Data Collected from Family Court Views: How long have you had a case in family court?


Were there abuse issues involved in your case?

“In 2011, 79% of murders reported to the FBI (in which the victim-offender relationship was known) were committed by friends, loved ones, or acquaintances. Of the 3.5 million assaults and murders against family members between 1998 and 2002 (the last time such a study was done), almost half were crimes against spouses. 11% were against children.”

Eichelberger, E. (2013, April 18). House of Horrors Violence on the Home Front. Huffington Post. The Blog. Retrieved from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erika-eichelberger/violence-in-the-home_b_3109057.html

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The three MI counties with several observations and for which relative median Household income data was collected:

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Unemployment Rate Median 2008 HH Income

% State Median HH

Income Comments County # 2007 2008 2009

Ingham 98 6.0% 7.0% 11.3% $45,990 94.6% Lansing's county

Oakland 48 6.1% 7.1% 12.9% $67,670 139.2% Detroit northern suburb

Washtenaw 222 4.7% 5.7% 8.6% $59,125 121.6% Detroit western suburb


The blue issues are categorized as “money” and the red issues are “control.” Divorce is excluded because it could be either or both.

Control issues predominate in the county with the highest HH income.Control issues are lowest in the county with the lowest HH income.Money issues are pretty much the same level.

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Property Division Custody Visitation Child Support Violence Fees Partner Support



How much did you spend on your litigation?

Of 613 observations, 219 times the court watchers felt compelled to add extra comments

Some Issues of Interest Domestic pre-trials all take place in chambers Disability issues are of concern Third parties requesting custody

Grandmothers, sisters, step-aunt, brothers, half-sister Representative of family business

Social workers discussing cases where others can hear Judge is no show court/lawyer are not prepared. These additional notes suggest the data be mined for

other issues.

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These 2 data points show that careful analysis is important. Both are related, but just looking for “abuse “would miss the big picture of “domestic violence.”

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Which part of the family court process did you think was the least effective?

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How could the family court process be improved?

Was the family's best interest served? Rarely or never 79 out of 104

Was the children's best interest served? Rarely or never 80 out of 102

Was there gender bias? Usually or always 83 out of 103

Was there ethnic bias? Usually or always 36 out of 92

Was there access to justice? Rarely or never 78 out of 99

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Paul Holdorf, JD (ret) Stanford Graduate Seven Years on Family Law Issue

Eileen King Executive Director Child Justice 20 years working in child protection

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1. How did you first get involved in the issues surrounding family law? 2. Do you have personal experience with the family court? 3. How long have you worked on this issue? 4. What is your position in the organization you work for? 5. What is the most important skill needed for your position? 6. What are the biggest challenges facing individuals in family court. 7. What are the biggest challenges facing family courts? 8. Given your experience in family courts over the years, what is the

most important issue? 9. What are the strengths and weakness of family courts? 10. If you could make changes in the court system what would they be? 11. If you could develop the perfect family court what would it look like?

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Paul Holdorf: Retired Attorney, Officer NFCWP Involved for seven years on this issue. Did not believe the stories he was hearing at first. Believed the NFCWP would be ”a way to determine

what is really happening in courts”. Weakest parties in family court are not number one.

Paul believes the “assumption should be that all children and victims are protected from abuse.” Biggest issue facing court is the “culture,” the idea

that children need a father, even if they are abusive. Judges believe everyone is liar.

His change to the Family Court system would be to “start from scratch.”

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Eileen King: Executive Director Child Justice Started out 12 years ago in non profit Learned that child abuse is ignored Lack of funds to work case Lack of competent attorneys “Churning” of cases, seeing a MILLION dollars spent Lack of child focus or protection Lack of willingness to change “mutually beneficial

“for all court actors to continue business as usual. Change is cost prohibitive

Revamp with judges who are well trained, sole, fact finders

Removal of all additional court actors Understand trauma and follow up

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Root Cause for the system failure? The systemic failure is so large, a “root” cause may be

impossible to isolate. Reform efforts have not solved issues and could well have

contributed to the current issues by increasing the court’s “jurisdiction and supervisory” authority, according to Jane Spinak in her article Reforming Family Court: Getting It Right between Rhetoric and Reality.

Failure to follow the mission of the courts. Failure of the system to, as Paul Holdorf stated ,”protect the

weakest victims, “children.” As Eileen King, stated, “there is no incentive to change it”.

Spinak, Jane M. (2009). Washington University Journal of Law & Policy. Reforming Family Court: Getting It Right between Rhetoric and Reality. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.law.wustl.edu/wujlp/vol31/iss1/3/

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Possible solutions for improvement “start from scratch” as the experts and the survey respondents stated.

Legislative reform that as Malcolm Smith described, “ease overwhelming burden on system in crisis.” Restructure the system to focus on child protection first. Plan of action :

Judicial races , separate ballot for family court from circuit court (Prevents family court from being stepping stone to circuit court).

Training that provides trauma and domestic violence along with full understanding of family law statutes Provide jury trials Pro Bono legal representation to all those unable to afford lawyers Fee caps for appointees and lawyers etc. Time limits to prevent families from being in court for a life time ALL protective orders, no matter what court ordered them, stay in force

Some good news regarding appointees: Which should be removed from family court. “As of today, April 23rd, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted Rule 1915.11-1 which states that

parent coordinators are no more and that only judges have the authority to make decisions in child custody cases.”

Smith, Malcolm A. (2009, September 10). Senate Acts To Improve Family Court System. New York State Senate Press Release. Retrieved from: http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/senate-acts-improve-family-court-system-0

Weems, Aaron. (2013, April 23). Pennsylvania Family Law. New Rule: No Parent Coordinators Allowed. Retrieved from http://pafamilylaw.foxrothschild.com/2013/04/articles/custody/new-rule-no-parent-coordinators-allowed/index.html

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http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/senate-acts-improve-family-court-system-0

After working on this project these are some changes I would make: Developed three surveys, different URLs, identical in all respects and

solicit responses from: Disparate opposing groups

Fathers' right’s groups Protective mothers' groups

Legal community , Support members of legal community , Custody Evaluators, GAL etc.

The substantive answers themselves would not be great, and the findings still won't be perfect, but what I would be researching wouldn't be the responses per se, but the DIFFERENCES in the responses.

Surveys like this have limitations. It is impossible to know how accurately respondents represent their court experience while not perfect, can offer you direction for future research.

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Documents

National Family Court Watch Project © Renee E. Beeker 2004-2013 University of Mount Union Alliance, OH, Spring 2013