A Paradigm Shift in the Practice of Family Law: A Response to Mosten and Traum

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12361
• Author: Paul J. Meller
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Published date: 01 July 2018

A PARADIGM SHIFT IN THE PRACTICE OF FAMILY LAW: A

RESPONSE TO MOSTEN AND TRAUM

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Paul J. Meller

In their article, Interdisciplinary Teamwork in Family Law Practice, Mosten and Traum promote the use of an interdisciplin-

ary, team-based approach to family law practice. This commentary focuses on the two pronged shift in the current zeitgeist

of family law practice. First, Mosten and Traum guide us away from an historically adversarial approach to family law prac-

tice, in which attorneys advocate for the legal rights of a single client, to a more holistic approach in which the focus is on

the Family Global Case. Furthermore, the push toward Family Global Case shifts the focus away from discrete legal issues

associated with reorganization to empowering families to self-determine through their reorganization. This shift follows the

movement in both medicine and mental health away from direct intervention for people with disorders to promoting wellness

for at-risk yet healthy individuals. The second prong of Mosten and Traum’s approach is a movement toward more collabora-

tive interdisciplinary functioning. However, the shift in the practice of family law from the sole practitioner working alone to

being one member of a broader multidisciplinary team focusing on the future well-being of the family brings with it not only

issues of professional role definitions but also the development of a new combined set of ethics and models for training.

These are discussed in detail.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

•Model for interdisciplinary practice.

•Promoting family wellness after reorganizations.

•Innovative approach to family lawpractice.

Keywords: Alternative Dispute Resolution; FamilyGlobal Case; Family Wellness; Interdisciplinary; and Zeitgeist Shift.

In his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,

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the philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn,

wrote that fundamental changes in any field occur through what he identified as scientific revolu-

tions. These revolutions are demarcated by paradigm shifts in which there are substantive changes

in the basic conceptualization, theoretical assumptions, and methods of inquiry of any given disci-

pline. Kuhn identified the maintenance of the status quo through long and stagnant periods in which

there are no fundamental changes in these basic parameters of the field as normal periods. When

prior assumptions are demonstrated to be invalid, and basic beliefs are challenged, Kuhn indicated

that the field enters into a crisis period. Crisis periods are driven not just by changing empiricism or

enhanced scientific methodology but principally by changing scientific, cultural, or social zeitgeists.

The basic assumptions and empirical evidence that is unveiled during the crisis period yields a new

understanding of the world, a new and more evolved normal period is created. In their article,

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Mosten and Traum herald the emergence of not a mere shift in paradigms, in which strategies and

tactics for addressing family reorganizations need to be changed, but rather a change in zeitgeist–

moving forward the predominant ideas and long-held beliefs associated with the practice of matri-

monial law and family reorganization. This shift in zeitgeists parallel s Kuhn’s movement from a

normal period in a field to a crisis period, a fundamentally new era in matrimonial law.

The zeitgeist shift articulated by Mosten and Traum has two distinct tines.

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First, is a movement

away from the necessity of conceptualizing a case in terms of competing for interest in a client-

centered advocacy approach to one of promoting lasting wellness of the newly defined reorganized

family, including the children, by focusing on the Family Global Case. The second fundamental

Correspondence: Paul.meller@hofstra.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 3, July 2018 461–464

© 2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts