Family Court Project Expands Again, Eight New Counties Join

The Supreme Court selected eight more counties to participate in Indiana’s growing Family Court Initiative beginning next January, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard announced today.

“The family court project has helped many families faced with multiple legal challenges work their way through the legal system. It is very satisfying to see that the Indiana General Assembly has continued to support this important project with new funding for the next two years,” Chief Justice Shepard said.

The new pilot counties represent a variety of county sizes and locations. Each of these counties submitted written applications last fall to serve as a pilot project to implement model family court programs and each has a unique way to serve children and families. All of the counties will utilize some form of case coordination to assist families who have more than one case in the court system or to ensure informed decision-making in non-adversarial dispute resolution.

Here is a breakdown of the new projects and funding amounts.

Tippecanoe County: Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Loretta H. Rush will develop a “family focused” drug treatment court for juveniles and their family members. Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Donald Daniel will explore case coordination, mediation, and service referral programming for low-income or high-risk families in divorce cases. Total grant: $45,000

Lake County: Lake Superior Court Judge James Danikolas and Lake Circuit Judge Lorenzo Arredondo will develop separate but coordinated projects to identify and share information on families who have cases in more than one courtroom, and further develop mediation programming and service referral for low-income families. Total grant: $35,000

Henry County: Henry Superior Court Michael Peyton and Henry Circuit Judge Mary Willis will develop affordable, non-adversarial dispute resolution for low-income families, and pilot a one family-one judge program to coordinate intense services to high-risk families. Total grant: $25,000

Vigo County: Court officials will work with the local Dispute Resolution Center to provide affordable mediation for low-income families without attorneys in contested custody and visitation matters. Total grant: $40,000

Brown, Bartholomew, Jackson and Lawrence Counties: Judges in four southern Indiana counties have joined together to create a multiple-county family court project to provide affordable, non-adversarial dispute resolution and to develop means of identifying and coordinating multiple case families involved in this dispute resolution. Brown Circuit Judge Judith A. Stewart, Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance, Jackson County Referee Jeffrey Nierman, Lawrence Circuit Judge Pro Tem Andrea McCord, Lawrence Superior Court Judge Michael Robbins, and Bartholomew Circuit Judge Stephen Heimann and Referee Heather Mollo will work cooperatively to design this new regional approach to provide mediation services to low income or high-risk families. Total grant: $56,000

The new family court pilot counties will receive a total of $201,000 for program development in 2004 and $197,000 in 2005. This funding was augmented by a grant from the federal Court Improvement Program for family court projects that particularly serve abused and neglected children.

The nine counties that developed innovative programming in the first two phases of the Family Court Initiative from 2000 through 2003 will all continue their successful programming. Those are Boone, Johnson, LaPorte, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Porter, Putnam, and Owen Counties. Additionally, they will mentor the new counties by sharing forms and policies and procedures, and helping the new counties address challenges they experienced earlier. By the end of 2005, over $1 million will have been distributed directly to the counties as part of the Family Court Initiative.