Legislative subcommittee launches review of family court structure, schedules meetings and requests judicial records

Representative Pearson, chair of the Children and Family Law Committee subcommittee on family court, opened an organizational meeting to begin a legislative review of the state's family court and related practices and scheduled follow-up meetings for April 1 and April 8.

The subcommittee will examine three initial topics: whether family-court judges should be specialized or assigned to a single courtroom; whether mediation before trial should be mandatory or remain voluntary and what training mediators should have; and how to address cases that appear in both criminal or superior court (for domestic violence) and family court (for custody and support). "This subcommittee's work will build upon the good work done over the past 2 years by the special committee on the family division of circuit court," Pearson said as he opened the session.

The judicial branch provided background and offered to supply materials and expert witnesses. Erin Kriegen, general counsel for the judicial branch, said the branch will provide documents from in-house researchers and outside groups, including work by the National Conference of State Legislators. "I'm the general counsel for the judicial branch," Kriegen told the subcommittee, and offered to bring additional staff and judges to future meetings as the group requested.

Judge Michael Mace, a circuit…