Letters.

Family Law

Upon reading a recent letter to the editor criticizing the proposed Family Law Model Court Plan, I noted the author's commitment to her chosen area of practice.

Although I am a member of the Supreme Court Family Court Steering Committee, I am responding to the gist of the criticisms as a fellow family law practitioner, both attorney and mediator.

The current state of family law practice is fraught with emotional issues which often control the direction of a given case. Most attorneys practicing family law do so in an adversarial manner. This is how attorneys are trained, experienced and are comfortable, to some extent. Of course, many attorneys would never, ever consider family law practice because of the adversarial nature of this area and lack of control over the emotional issues of the parties.

There are some marital and family law attorneys, including board-certified lawyers, who attempt to practice marital and family law in a nonadversarial manner. They emphasize problem-solving and staying out of court. Court is the last resort, not the first resort. Pleadings are not routinely filed unless absolutely necessary when two lawyers are working cooperatively.

This requires the lawyers to deal effectively with the emotional issues, such as spite, jealousy, vengeance, insecurity, loss of esteem, etc. If an expert is needed, the parties authorize the attorneys to choose a neutral expert, such as a parent evaluator, a family therapist to assist the parents or child when problems arise, a business valuator, a financial expert to compile financial information, etc.

The Family Law Model Court Plan was proposed after many years of study, deliberation and consultation. The plan was proposed because the current adversarial system does not work for the most part. Certainly there are those cases in which legitimate, nonemotional discrepancies give rise to issues for the court to...