Article in THE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS of Vermont 1/7/1998 by Sam Hemingway.

Title: Judging the COURT of TRAGEDY

It is the court everyone loves to hate. Even lawyers, it turns out."It is clear that the Family Court has not lived up to the expectations which preceded its creation-and it never could, nor will it," said a recent Vermont Bar Association study of the state's "USER FRIENDLY" court for divorces and domestic disputes.

On that score, its likely everyone can agree. 7 yrs. after it was carved out of Superior Court to better address legal matters affecting families, the jury is still out on how well FAMILY COURT is working in Vermont.

Most say its an improvement on the old system, but judges still grumble about burnout: court staffers struggle with an ever increasing work load; and those who actually go through the court feel no better once decisions are made.
Part of that goes with the emotional territory over which the court presides.

"Family Court is often tragedy in real time," reflected Judge Shireen Fisher in a perspective included in the report. "Judicial officers in Family Court deal with broken lives, broken vows, and broken dreams." What makes matters worse, the lawyers report said, is that the court is so set on using mediation instead of lawyers to resolve disputes that its decisions are to often dragged out, flawed and open to challenge later.

To underline its point, the association came up with a remarkable statistic: In 80% of the cases before the Family Court, 1 or both sides represent themselves, a lawyer less predicament attorneys say is bad for judges and court staff.
The proof: While the number of divorces remain constant, post divorce challenges in the 1st five years of Family Court almost tripled. Meanwhile domestic abuse cases were up almost 800%, an increase the study said was probably inflated by questionable abuse claims.

"Judges should be deciding cases and addressing legal issues, and not attempting to do social work or representing 1 or both of the parties before them, " the study said.

The solution? What a surprise: Let lawyers in on more of the action, the lawyers group suggests. Frankly, its just not that simple. Many matters in Family Court, including a good number of divorces, are not in dispute and do not require the involvement of a lawyer. Even when disputes loom, its not a given lawyers make a difference.

"The presence or absence of attorneys in a case is not a determining factor in whether that case is difficult, frustrating or draining, "said Windsor County Assistant Judge William Boardman. " The hard cases are just hard cases."

The fact is , when it comes to family law, going to court without a lawyer is the rule, not the exception, in all 50 states. "It's a nationwide phenomenon, whether a Family Court exists in a state or not," said VT. court administrator Lee Suskin.

There are also signs VT. Family Court is getting better at handling sticky divorce and domestic abuse cases, not worse. Challenges of divorce decrees dropped by 8%in the past fiscal year; filings for relief from abuse orders were down almost 6 %.

Suskin conceded Family Court is work in progress, however. "We have 14 experimental laboratories,"he said, referring to the states 14 counties." It's time to look at which ones work the best.

To that end, Suskin said the state will soon be applying for $240,000 federal grant to size up how well its Family Court offspring is doing and what innovations from individual counties ought to go statewide.

One that's sure to get a close look: the 3 yr. old Barre Family Court Project that provides a team of specialist to help divorcing couples with children keep the focus on the kids and steer clear of courtroom disputes.

Who can hate that.

It took me approx. a year to get a final hearing ending in 10/97 and I still have not seen any final papers on reestablishing visitation and support since my EX moved.

I feel like a experimental rat... with no end in site, at least for another 7 yrs.