Supreme Court Family Court Project Expands

In an expansion of the successful family court pilot project, the Indiana Supreme Court has selected five additional counties to be test sites for programs that help families with multiple legal issues navigate the court system, Chief Justice Shepard announced today.

The Indiana Supreme Court has selected courts in Boone, Montgomery, Marion, LaPorte, and Putnam counties to serve as pilot projects in the next phase of the Indiana Family Court Project, Chief Justice Shepard said. Each county was selected from among nine applicants, all of whom sought to develop innovative ways to deal with cases involving families and children.

"The growth of family court models in Indiana has been exciting and very encouraging. We look forward to working with the newest wave of ideas from pilot counties on ways to better serve children and families," said Chief Justice Shepard.

The Supreme Court and its Division of State Court Administration started the Family Court Project in 1999 with funding from the state legislature. Court of Appeals Judge Margret G. Robb chairs a statewide Family Court Task Force, which reviews applications for the project.

The family court concept focuses on reducing repeat court appearances and avoiding inconsistent judicial results for families and children in multiple legal proceedings. Under Indiana's traditional court system, a single family's various legal problems often are handled in different courts. Each judge may be unaware of other proceedings and may not have access to crucial information about the child and family.

During the first phase of the pilot projects, Johnson, Monroe, and Porter Counties successfully developed three unique but easily transferable ways to process family cases. These three family courts will continue to operate with limited state assistance as they move toward mostly local funding.

In Johnson County, Judge Mark Loyd and Magistrate Craig Lawson used an innovative one family-one judge model to transfer all of a family's legal cases before the same judicial officer. Local attorneys were overwhelming receptive to this new approach. Monroe County Judges Viola Taliaferro and Marc Kellams also used a one family-one judge approach, but additionally provided specialized programming for at-risk divorce families.

In Porter County, Judge Mary Harper developed a case management system to provide the same information to all the judicial officers involved with the family.

The family court projects also created some very innovative mediation programming to serve low income and indigent families, which allows families to resolve their cases outside of the courtroom using a neutral person to help them fashion a settlement. When the legal case involves the safety or permanency of the child, the Office of Family and Children, CASA, or schools may be involved in the out-of-court conferencing to insure the safety and stability of the children.

The five new pilot counties will build on the models created by the original pilot counties with some exciting new ideas. Judge Steve David in Boone County and Judge Thomas Milligan in Montgomery County will combine their efforts in the first multiple county project. This project will include case coordination and information sharing between the two counties, as well as jointly developing and sharing needed services for children and families. Judge LaViolette in Putnam County anticipates branching into an adjacent county with an affordable mediation program, known as facilitation.

Judge Robert Gilmore and Magistrate Sally Ankony in LaPorte County will begin information sharing with the already existing family court in Porter County, and will develop case coordination for families involved in multiple courts and mediation programming in the juvenile court. In Marion County, Judges Robyn Moberly and S.K. Reid will work with Judge James Payne, of the Juvenile Division, to hire a case manager to expedite service delivery to at-risk families in divorce cases, as well as coordinate families who have juvenile, divorce, or criminal matters pending before multiple judges.

In 1999 the Supreme Court received $400,000 for the first two-year period for the creation of pilot family courts. For the current budget cycle, 2001-2003, the court received an additional $400,000 for funding, including $235,000 for the new projects.