Family Court Review

Issue Number

Latest documents

• July 2019
• Court‐Based Interventions in Spain for Families in Divorce Transition: Challenges in the Implementation of (Co)‐Parenting Coordination

  Families facing separation or divorce in Spain encounter a number of obstacles, including a primarily adversarial and slow justice system, nonspecialized courts and judges, and a lack of resources to help them through the process. Recent legislation at the regional level (autonomous communities) is moving toward emphasizing shared parental responsibility and introducing parenting plans, while at the national level, legislation advances slowly. One of the main challenges professionals are facing in high‐conflict couple separation is protecting children from the effects of being in the middle of their parents’ conflict. Traditional psychological, legal, and social services are insufficient to support parents and protect their children from interparental hostile conflict—which can be exacerbated by litigation, professional intervention, domestic violence, or addiction. This article illustrates, through a case study, the implementation of parenting coordination in Spain. Different jurisdictions in Spain are slowly implementing (co‐)parenting coordination, an in‐depth intervention designed to support these families. The objective is to help families focus on children's needs and follow the court‐approved parenting plans or court orders, reduce relitigation, and improve parental communication and conflict resolution skills. This article analyzes different aspects and challenges relating to the implementation of parenting coordination in Spain. Recommendations are then made to address them.

• Guiding Principles for Family Justice Programs

  The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and Relate, UK, co‐convened a 24‐hour consultation at St George's House, Windsor, UK, on modern family justice issues across Europe. This article identifies a preliminary set of guiding principles for family justice programs developed by consultation participants.

• Supporting Children and Parents in Sweden through Collaboration Teams

  Coordinated, multidisciplinary collaboration teams have been developed in Sweden with the purpose of preventing or mitigating conflicts between parents and promoting effective parental cooperation. The screening and assessment tool, known as the Family Law Detection of Overall Risk Screen (FL‐DOORS), was used to assess the children's and parents’ situation and need for support or protection. The overall results based on the children's and the parents’ situations and experiences demonstrate that a collaboration team is a promising model. The development project (2014–2017) has demonstrated the importance of offering children and families preventative support at an early stage in order to avoid prolonged and conflict‐ridden separations.

• Why Listening to Children and Young People is Important in Family Justice

  During the last 30 years, there has been a growing body of evidence indicating that children and young people often feel marginalized when their parents are making critical decisions that will shape their young lives, and they are calling for family justice professionals to hear their voices. This article explores the research evidence, examines the relevant theories about child development, and demonstrates how a focus on age‐related competency fails to take account of children's subjective meanings about their lives. The authors consider a model of participation first designed to understand adult participation in government and show how this can be usefully applied to understanding children's participation in family justice.

• Family Relationships and Family Justice in Europe: Changes and Challenges

  The huge diversity in family life and living arrangements across the globe has far‐reaching implications for the ways in which families are supported and family justice is administered. Given the serious concerns about the number of relationships that break down and the potentially detrimental impacts on children and their parents, it is essential to understand the triggers threatening the stability of couple relationships, including the financial stresses caused by the recent global recession and accompanying fiscal austerity. Since family relationships are central to the psychological, emotional, social, and economic well‐being of adults and children everywhere, policy makers and practitioners should collaborate across international boundaries to develop interventions that promote family well‐being, secure the best interests of children, and ensure the conditions and systems in which families can thrive.

• Harnessing the Power of Data to Improve Family Justice: A New Nuffield Family Justice Observatory For England and Wales

  A pilot Family Justice Observatory for England and Wales is being launched in Spring 2019. Its overarching aim is to address concerns about the limited and uncertain place of empirical evidence in the family justice system. The Observatory will focus on providing intelligence about how the system is working, especially through the accelerated use of electronic population level data on family justice cases. Drawing on collaborative relationships between data providers and users, as well as policy and practice colleagues, the Observatory will improve collective understanding of the needs of children and families and how they are met by the family justice system.

• Partnership in Practice: European Perspectives
• Finding the Right Support: One Size Doesn't Fit All

  Support for families in the context of separation and divorce has evolved significantly over the last 30 years in the UK. There is growing acceptance that “one size doesn't fit all”—families need different support at different times, and often a combination of services. Relationships Scotland, a network of 21 Member Services, is able to customize and integrate support to meet the needs of each particular family at any stage of relationship difficulty. This article describes the impact of tailored support for one family, as an example of the potential benefit of community‐based, integrated, and flexible support provision.

• Hearing the Voice of the Child: Current Practice in Family Courts in Germany

  German family courts have a long‐standing tradition of hearing the child's voice when proceedings affect the child. This article aims to provide an overview of the German procedural rules. The current role and practice of child hearings in family courts and the direct effects on the child are discussed in detail. The perceived benefits, challenges, and pitfalls are deliberated from the viewpoint of the psychological expert. Hearing the voice of the child in person is increasingly viewed as beneficial to the proceedings if the judges and other professionals involved possess the necessary qualifications and competence.

Featured documents

• Do Not Make their Trauma Your Trauma: Coping with Burnout as a Family Law Attorney

  In the field of family law, attorneys frequently expose themselves to highly emotional and traumatized clients. Litigation is by nature a high‐stress occupation, demanding a high level of intellectual and emotional engagement from the contesting lawyers. Adding the burden of inherently distressing...

• Association of Family and Conciliation Court Guidelines for Child Protection Mediation

  The Child Protection Mediation Guidelines Workgroup came together under the auspices of the Child Welfare Collaborative Decision Making Network to examine program development and the practice of child protection mediation. The Workgroup convened and began its work in 2010. The resultant Guidelines...

• When a Child Rejects a Parent: Working With the Intractable Resist/Refuse Dynamic

  A subgroup of intractable families, in which a child refuses postseparation contact with a parent, perplexes and frustrates professionals who work with them. This article discusses the underlying forces that drive the family's intractability, as well as guidelines for working with the family. The...

• Closing the Crossover Gap: Amending Fostering Connections to Provide Independent Living Services for Foster Youth Who Crossover to the Justice System

  In the last three decades, Congress has enacted a series of amendments to the Social Security Act to address the growing number of youth who “age out” of the foster care system. The most recent and, arguably, the most notable of these programs was The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing ...

• Not Without my Children: The Need for the Modification of International Child Abduction Laws

  Thousands of children are being abducted from the United States to countries abroad yearly. As a result, thousands of parents’ rights are being violated. With the convenience of social media, easy access to plane tickets, and touch‐ screen phones that connect people with each other across the world,...

• Safe Haven: Granting Support to Victims of Child Abuse Who Have Been Judicially Emancipated

  Emancipation is the process by which a minor becomes free from the custody and control of the minor's parents. There are twenty‐eight states with emancipation statutes that set forth the procedure for obtaining emancipation status. Current emancipation statutes terminate the parents' obligation to...

• Special Considerations in Child Custody Evaluations for Children with High‐Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

  Asperger's Disorder, which now is subsumed under Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the DSM‐5, is increasingly being identified in children and adolescents. As a result, professionals in family law courts will have more exposure to children with ASD. However, there are limited guidelines and few...

• Supervised Visitation and Family Financial Well‐Being: Broadening Access to Community Services for Low‐Income Parents in the Court System

  This article describes a federally funded pilot program designed to connect low‐income families at supervised visitation (SV) programs to other community resources to improve their economic well‐being. The pilot program established additional community connections for families in both urban and...

• Parental Gatekeeping and Child Custody/Child Access Evaluation: Part I: Conceptual Framework, Research, and Application

  Parental gatekeeping refers to parents’ attitudes and actions that serve to affect the quality of the other parent's relationship and involvement with the child. It captures a common statutory best interest factor that often becomes the center of child custody disputes, especially in relocation...

• Extending the Practice of Physician‐Assisted Suicide to Competent Minors

  In an effort to address the mental and physical suffering terminally ill patients endure, some states have either legalized or decriminalized physician‐assisted suicide—a practice commonly referred to as death with dignity. However, as the practice of physician‐assisted suicide becomes accepted...