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Subcommittee weighs standardizing family-court mediation, pretrial timelines and pilot for specialized courts
Summary
A House subcommittee discussed standardizing pretrial orders, increasing mediator training and oversight, instituting domestic-violence screening before mediation, piloting changes in select counties and continuing informal work into next year; no formal votes were taken.
Members of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Children and Family Law discussed proposals to standardize family-court pretrial procedures, increase training and oversight for mediators, and pilot specialized approaches in a few counties, but took no formal votes.
The proposals, presented to the subcommittee by Representative Grama and Representative Raymond, would require a pretrial case management order within 30 days in family cases, set clear deadlines for evidence and witness lists, require a mandatory domestic-violence screening tool before mediation, and raise mediator certification and oversight standards, proponents said. They also recommended piloting changes in a small number of counties before a statewide rollout.
The subcommittee’s speakers described inconsistent application of existing rules across New Hampshire courts and said families, especially those who represent themselves, report delays, confusion and uneven mediator training. The presenters said mediation training and oversight vary by court and…
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