Families in Vanderburgh County have a new resource to help them navigate through the court system. Vanderburgh is one of two counties who have been awarded funding from the Indiana Supreme Court to begin new family court projects in 2008. Vanderburgh Superior Court Judge Mary Margaret Lloyd is spearheading the project.
The centerpiece of Vanderburgh County’s family court project is the Multi-Case Family Coordination & Pro Se Assistance Clinic. The Clinic is designed to assist low income, pro se litigants involved in family law cases to be more efficient and have greater success. It is a partnership among the Vanderburgh County Circuit and Superior Courts, the staff at their public Law Library, the Volunteer Lawyer Program (VLP) of Southwestern Indiana, members of the Evansville Bar Association, and the Evansville Bar Foundation.
The project is managed in conjunction with the Volunteer Lawyer Program of Southwestern Indiana, the pro bono plan administrator for judicial district 13. Both Vanderburgh and Clark County, the other new family court project for 2008, developed and submitted their grant proposals in partnership with the local pro bono district. “We are always looking for ways that volunteer attorneys can be of assistance to low income clients and the Courts, and the family court project provided the perfect way to do both,” noted Scott Wylie, a Co-Plan Administrator for VLP in Evansville. “Because it is so difficult to place family law matters with volunteers, we hope the Clinic will also allow VLP to reserve its limited family law placement to those who truly can’t navigate the system by themselves thereby improving services to everyone.”
The Clinic is initially focusing on family law matters involving the custody or care of minor children or cases involving domestic violence, with special attention being given to multiple-case families. By mid-year, administrators plan to add guidance on non-custodial family law matters as demand allows, as well as assistance to guardians of minors facing reporting or other court pro se requirements. The program plans to serve 100 families in its first year.
Clinic sessions are scheduled twice monthly at the Vanderburgh County Courthouse. Participants receive advice and counsel from volunteer attorneys, assistance in completion of forms and pleadings, guidance to self-help resources, and referrals to appropriate social and support services and/or mediation. The Clinic also provides coordination of information regarding multiple-case families. Volunteer Clinic attorneys only provide assistance as part of the Clinic services and do not represent clients in court. However, they can refer matters requiring legal representation to the existing legal services system or through the Evansville Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.
Clients of the Clinic undergo an initial intake screening to determine if they are financially and geographically eligible. If eligible, they are screened for additional cases—of any type—pending or recently decided in the Vanderburgh County courts, or any other jurisdiction involving the family. Information about any related matters in the Vanderburgh County court system, and client-related information about matters existing outside of Vanderburgh County, is provided to the appropriate judge. Judge Lloyd has noted that it is not unusual for one family to have a variety of cases pending in several different courts, perhaps a landlord/tenant matter before one judge affecting the family, and a CHINS matter in front of another judge. Because of Evansville’s location, it is also common to have related cases across the Kentucky or Illinois state lines. “Hopefully, we will now be better able to address the cases before us in the domestic relations arena” she added.
Clients are also screened during intake for any potential threat of domestic violence, abuse within the family, or other factors that might benefit from additional social services. Mediation services and social service referrals are also discussed to determine if appropriate.
If mediation assistance is needed, Clinic staff will continue to work with clients through their pending matter. They use a limited case management system designed to further improve case efficiency and ensure compliance with court deadlines and attendance at appropriate hearings. Mediation assistance for low-income clients is a new service for the Vanderburgh County Courts. “We are especially excited about the mediation services made possible by the Clinic,” said Wylie. “This will be the first time that this service will be broadly available to low income litigants in Vanderburgh County. Mediation, along with family counseling, can often provide much better outcomes for a troubled family than the adversarial process in Court.”
The Indiana Family Court Project, which provided the bulk of funding for the Clinic, was initiated in 1999 as a cooperative effort between the General Assembly and the Indiana Supreme Court Division of State Court Administration. The purpose of the Project is to develop common sense models to serve children and families better in our courts. The initial emphasis of the Family Court Project was to create models to coordinate families who have multiple cases pending before multiple judges and to share information. While all projects are still required to include multiple case coordination and information sharing, the scope of the project has broadened somewhat to include various types of family-friendly programming.
For more information on the Indiana Family Court Project, or to learn how to start a project in your county, contact Family Court Project Manager Loretta Oleksy at 317.233.0784 or [email protected].