University Center, ABA to Bring National Summit on Unified Family Courts to Baltimore in 2007
September 18, 2006
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) will co-sponsor with the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Substance Abuse and the ABA Judicial Division’s National Conference of State Trial Judges Coordinating Council on Unified Family Courts a major national conference on unified family courts, to be held in Baltimore on May 3 and 4, 2007.
Unified family courts provide a comprehensive approach to address families’ and children’s legal problems through a court structure characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration, problem- solving and provision of social services to these families in crisis. The event will serve as the official follow-up to an important 1998 summit in Philadelphia on the same topic, sponsored by the ABA and attended by legal teams from 32 states.
Attendance for the “Summit on Unified Family Courts: Serving Children and Families Efficiently, Effectively and Responsibly” is expected to be in the hundreds, as state teams, led by their chief justices, work toward the following goals:
• Creating a definitive guide to best practices for unified family courts
• Establishing collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to assist families and children in court
• Developing standards and measures to assess the operation of unified family courts
• Discussing the critical role of judicial leadership
• Developing processes for accountability, services and other deliverables
According to Barbara Babb, CFCC director and associate professor in the UB School of Law, a unified approach to address family legal problems will significantly improve the chances that family law litigants will emerge from the legal system with a sense that their interests were truly understood and resolved in a helpful manner.
“The fragmentation of family law cases among different courts or specialized dockets, often decided by different judges, forces families to appear before several judges on different dates,” Babb said. “Judges may be unaware that related matters are pending before other courts, resulting in conflicting orders. What is worse is that the lack of communication, coordination and collaboration that characterize this fragmented approach exacerbates the problems that bring families to court in the first place.”
Babb noted that this fragmented approach goes on thousands of times every day in the nation’s court system.
“Given the pressing needs of families and their children during these crises, it is simply not enough to say we did the best we could,” she said. “Once the legal system recognizes the multiple, interrelated aspects of families’ legal and non-legal issues, then that system will be able to serve our citizens more effectively.”
Since the 1998 ABA summit, many states, including Maryland, have worked to implement and refine the unified family court model. The ABA has continued to push for reforms under the leadership of its Coordinating Council on Unified Family Courts.
“We have some ways to go to see this holistic approach taken past its successful initial phase and integrated into every family law court in the country,” Babb said. “The 2007 national summit will help us get there by bringing together national leaders in this movement and pairing them with leaders from the judiciary, state and local bar associations, the political establishment and so on. This is the second phase, and it’s here that recognition and understanding of the issue will reach a tipping point.”
More details on the 2007 gathering are available by contacting the Center for Families, Children and the Courts at 410.837.5615.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.