Law Center Receives Grant to Continue Work on Unified Family Courts Following National Summit
July 12, 2007
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Maryland's Administrative Office of the Courts has awarded the University of Baltimore School of Law's Center for Families, Children and the Courts a grant for two major initiatives, including a major report on a recent national summit on Unified Family Courts and a quarterly newsletter that will report on UFC developments across the country. Both initiatives will capitalize on the success of the recent American Bar Association/CFCC conference, which hosted many of the nation's leading experts on family justice, including a number of chief judges, practitioners, scholars and researchers. It was held in Baltimore on May 3-4.
The $89,000 AOC award will be used by CFCC to publish a report based on the "Summit on Unified Family Courts: Serving Children and Families Efficiently, Effectively and Responsibly." The report, which will be distributed nationwide to state justice system leaders, will include conference abstracts, highlights, and original papers or chapters based on conference presentations. In addition, the report will provide several new companion pieces that will assess the summit's effectiveness, offer recommendations for future initiatives, and suggest national standards and best practices for Unified Family Courts.
In addition to the report, the AOC grant will enable CFCC to publish and distribute a quarterly newsletter that will report and comment on Unified Family Court developments around the country. This will be the first and only newsletter in the country devoted exclusively to states' efforts to establish and maintain a Unified Family Court model. The newsletter will be available in hard copy or online on CFCC’s Web site.
The summit highlighted a distinct group of reforms that is gaining traction in family courts across the United States. Maryland is seen by many as a national leader and model for these reforms, having created five Family Divisions (in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Montgomery, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties) based on the Unified Family Court model. Maryland Chief Judge Robert M. Bell's position as 2007 president of the Conference of Chief Justices has enhanced the state's strong reputation in this area.
Indeed, the state's Family Divisions received a great deal of attention and praise during the conference, according to Barbara A. Babb, CFCC director and associate professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
"Our courts are seen as leading the nation in developing a model for delivering family justice," Babb said. "Everyone from ABA President Karen Mathis to the various state representatives who attended agreed that Maryland is doing pathbreaking work in developing a system that offers families necessary nonlegal services and treats each family holistically, rather than dividing up family legal issues among different courts."
CFCC's ultimate goal is to be a national clearinghouse on the subject of Unified Family Courts, Babb explained.
"One of the clear messages that we heard from those attending the summit was that courts around the country desperately need a vehicle that will enable them to network and share ideas among judges, court staff, attorneys, services providers, and policymakers interested in Unified Family Courts," she said.
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.