Unified Family Courts Summit Organizers Named
November 22, 2006
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
In preparation for a major opportunity to showcase the significant progress of the Maryland family justice system, a group of prominent Maryland judges and attorneys, along with representatives of the University of Baltimore School of Law's Center for Families, Children and the Courts, are serving as the local host committee for a national conference on unified family courts, to be held in Baltimore next May.
The conference, a "Summit on Unified Family Courts: Serving Children and Families Efficiently, Effectively and Responsibly," is scheduled for May 3 and 4, 2007. CFCC, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Substance Abuse and the ABA Judicial Division's National Conference of State Trial Judges Coordinating Council on Unified Family Courts are co-sponsors of this event. The conference comes at a time when reforms in the family justice system are receiving increased attention across the United States. Maryland is seen by many as a national leader and model for these reforms, having created five family divisions (Baltimore City and Baltimore, Montgomery, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties) based on the unified family court model.
Many state court systems still handle family court cases in a fragmented manner, with overlapping jurisdictions over different legal questions involving the same family. 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. Specially trained judges have comprehensive subject matter jurisdiction over all the family legal issues, such as divorce, substance abuse or domestic abuse. Utilizing a therapeutic, holistic approach, the judge works to fashion helpful and comprehensive resolutions to the family's legal, personal, emotional and social difficulties.
The event will serve as the official follow-up to a 1998 summit in Philadelphia on the same topic, sponsored by the ABA and attended by legal teams from 32 states.
Herbert Belgrad, a partner in the Baltimore law firm of Tydings and Rosenberg, serves as chair of the host committee. At the group's initial meeting on Sept. 19, Maryland's Chief Judge Robert Bell thanked committee members for their involvement and voiced his support for the upcoming summit.
Attendance for the "Summit on Unified Family Courts" 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.
During the conference, the legal and judicial communities in Baltimore will showcase the advances of Maryland's family justice system. For example, planning is underway for conference participants to tour the Baltimore City Family Division, highlighting the court's family-friendly atmosphere, on-site child care center, supervised visitation facility and neutral visitation drop-off site.
The local host committee is working in tandem with the conference's planning committee, which is made up of representatives from CFCC and the ABA.
Belgrad has asked host committee members to serve as local liaisons for out-of-state participants by contacting them in advance of their arrival in Baltimore and assisting them once they have arrived.
In addition to Belgrad, the other host committee members are:
Hon. Marcella Holland, Circuit Court Judge, Baltimore City
Hon. Albert Matricciani, Circuit Court Judge, Baltimore City
Hon. Christopher Panos, District Court Judge, Baltimore City
Leslie Billman, attorney in Annapolis
Bonnie Butler, attorney for Butler, McKeon & Associates of Baltimore
Susan Elgin, attorney for Kaufman, Ries & Elgin of Towson
Tom Ries, attorney for Kaufman, Ries & Elgin of Towson
Michael Hendler, attorney for Adelberg, Rudow, Dorf & Hendler of Baltimore
Cheryl Lynn Hepfer, attorney in Rockville
Richard B. Jacobs, attorney for Hooper & Jacobs of Towson
Dorothy Lennig, attorney for the House of Ruth Domestic Violence Legal Clinic in Baltimore
Marc B. Noren, attorney for Adelberg, Rudow, Dorf & Hendler of Baltimore
Pamela Cardullo Ortiz, attorney and executive director of the Department of Family Administration, Administrative Office of the Courts, Annapolis
Linda Ravdin, attorney for Pasternak & Fadis of Bethesda
Deborah E. Reiser, attorney for Lerch, Early & Brewer of Bethesda
Deborah Sams, attorney and executive director of First Star in Washington, D.C.
Stacy Siegel, attorney in Towson
Jana Singer, professor in the University of Maryland School of Law
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.