1972, May, Pg. 37. Dissolution by the Dozen.

• Author: by Ray L. Weaver

1 Colo.Law. 37

Colorado Lawyer

1972.

1972, May, Pg. 37.

Dissolution by the Dozen

37Vol. 1, No. 7, Pg. 37Dissolution by the Dozenby Ray L. Weaver and Susan Wendall WhicherRay L. Weaver, Denver, is Staff Director of the Family Law Center, Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver. Susan Wendall Whicher, Denver, is Senior Staff Attorney of the Family Law Center, Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver. Their article describes the activities of the Family Law Center and presents their techniques for handling cases under Colorado's new Dissolution of Marriage Act, which became effective January 1, 1972.

General IntroductionThe primary problem in a high-volume domestic relations practice is developing a system which has the advantages of speed and facility, but is capable of human sensitivity. It is all too easy in such a practice to come to think of clients as statistics and of their incidental emotional problems as impediments to a smooth office operation. Any system designed for the large-scale practice of domestic relations law must make provision for individual and sensitive treatment of problems which often do not appear to be problems at law. This combination of problems---legal and emotional, soluble and insoluble--- discourages many general practitioners from assuming a high-volume domestic relations caseload.

The Family Law Center has been fortunate in acquiring personnel who are committed to working with this unique quality of a domestic relations practice, and we take this opportunity to share with the members of the bar what we have learned from our clients in the two and one-half years of our existence.

Early HistoryThe Family Law Center was begun in September 1969 as the Domestic Relations Division of the Legal Aid Society of Metropolitan Denver---a one-room branch of the central downtown office. The necessity for isolating all domestic relations cases within Legal Aid become clear during the spring of 1969, when the present director of the Family Law Center found that over 30% of the caseload of every Legal Aid staff attorney consisted of domestic relations cases.

A primary characteristic of domestic relations law has always been the variety and complexity of emotional problems connected with what is essentially one consistent legal problem. It was obvious that relieving the staff attorneys of domestic relations cases would free a sizeable amount of attorney time for other kinds of cases, and it was hoped that by concentrating the domestic relations cases in one center, the increased technical skills of the

38Domestic Relations Division attorney would yield more divorces faster and produce a greater sensitivity to the peculiar needs of a poverty-level client seeking a divorce.In addition to the attorney, the Domestic Relations Division consisted of a secretary-receptionist-office manager and a technical assistant, a non-professional who performed some of the tasks formerly performed by an attorney. The technical assistant was responsible for filing all domestic relations cases once they had been initiated, prepared and reviewed by the attorney, and for setting non-adversary cases for hearing according to a master schedule kept by the attorney. The technical assistant served process in those cases on which the Denver sheriff was unable to find the defendant, or on which the client would have had to pay for service. The technical assistant received special paralegal training in order to assume this position.

At the end of three months' existence, the Domestic Relations Division had an average open caseload of nearly 800 active cases and had added the services of a law clerk. Since the Domestic Relations Division was a branch of Legal Aid, a law clerk, so long as he remained a full-time student in a Colorado law school, could make court appearances, thereby freeing the attorney to supervise a rapidly expanding system.

Except for extraordinary cases, cases destined for the Domestic Relations Division were interviewed and initiated at the branch offices of Legal Aid in Metropolitan Denver. All hearings, however, were conducted by the Domestic Relations Division staff.

The high volume of cases pouring into the Domestic Relations Division necessitated early development of a master list which served as a case count, follow-up system and docket control. It consisted of a list of all clients by name, with each stage of filing, setting, hearing and closure checked off by date upon completion. The absence of a date indicated the necessity for followup. This list rapidly became cumbersome because it did not provide for the discard of records of completed cases, but was instead an infinite progression.

The Family Law CenterAfter nine months of existence, the Domestic Relations Division became a separate office, known as the Family Law Center, which presently has a staff of three legal secretaries, a receptionist-file clerk, two attorneys, one technical assistant, a paid law clerk and several law students. The Family Law Center also now includes a juvenile division consisting of two attorneys, one legal secretary and an extensive student intern program under the supervision of a student coordinator.

One major problem initially was that each staff attorney in Legal Aid was conducting...