Helping Families by Maintaining a Strong Well‐Funded Family Court that Encourages Consensual Peacemaking: A Judicial Perspective

• Date: 01 July 2015
• Author: Hon. Thomas Trent Lewis
• Published date: 01 July 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12158

HELPING FAMILIES BY MAINTAINING A STRONG WELL-FUNDED

FAMILY COURT THAT ENCOURAGES CONSENSUAL

PEACEMAKING: A JUDICIAL PERSPECTIVE

Hon. Thomas Trent Lewis

1

This article explores alternatives for the court process that promote a child-centered approach to resolution of family law issues

including a summary of procedures used in Los Angeles County to assist families. The article also explores alternatives to the

traditional custody litigation model.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Evaluations and trials are not the only tools available in family law.

Structured court ordered counseling can provide a meaningful intervention and reduce family conflict.

Alternative forms of mediation can help families address the “need to be heard” and retain personal autonomy in

decision making.

The court system should help educate families about how to resolve conflict in a safe, effective, and meaningful way.

Keywords: Adequate Court Funding; Collaborative Law; Court Case Management; High-Conflict Custody Litigation;

Mediation; and Parental Autonomy.

INTRODUCTION

I have spent virtually my entire professional life working for the betterment of families in transi-

tion. First as a family lawyer and then as a judicial officer, I have been honored to have the opportu-

nity to contribute to the well-being of adults and children during the reorganization of their families.

While deciding contested issues remains a main function of a family judicial officer, the needs of some

families and the limitations on court resources require an increasing policy role for family bench officers.

This would help promote the opportunity of family members to resolve their issues as early as possible in

a well-funded court system that will encourage the informed consent of use of peacemaking options.

I am proud to be a judicial officer of the Los Angeles Superior Court. In this article, I describe

some of the features of our court that are dedicated to the health of the families that use it. While

many courts throughout the world may have similar family-centered aspects, I hope to encourage

innovation and judicial experimentation through this discussion.

This Special Issue of Family Court Review has focused on developments inside and outside the

court system; these innovations depend on a strong family court to offer both children and their parents

a baseline of protection through the rule of law. In my role as immediate past president of the Associa-

tion for Family and Conciliation Courts, California Chapter, I strongly endorsed our 2010 Declaration

of a Public Health Crisis caused by a reduction of public funding and support for thecourts:

OUTREACH BY THE COURT TO ENCOURAGE PEACEMAKING

OPTIONS FOR FAMILIES

Once we are assured that the children in our communities have a viable and adequately funded

court to protect them, we have the further obligation to empower families to make informed choices

about whether they wish to use the court system and to support many alternatives for such

empowerment.

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 53 No. 3, July 2015 371–377

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C2015 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts