Columnist Sandy Thompson: Family Court streamlines system

Sandy Thompson

Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000 | 2:01 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com.

To improve efficiency and consistency, Family Court is doing away with its "smokestack" approach to cases.

Under the new "One Judge, One Family" model, the court will coordinate and integrate cases involving the same family in different actions before the court.

Under the old system, a parent involved in a divorce case may have filed separate cases to enforce a child support order or to seek a temporary protection order. Those were treated as three separate cases, and sometimes the judge hearing the divorce matter would be unaware of the other cases.

Family Court Hearing Master Thomas Leeds, testifying before a legislative subcommittee on Family Court in 1998, said families entered the court system through various "smokestacks." He advocated a more simple, integrated approach, which the Legislature approved, and Family Court has now put into action.

"Everything in the system will be linked to the judge of record," says Family Court Presiding Judge Dianne Steel. "You'll go to one place for a multitude of problems."

That should result in better services to families. Litigants no longer will have three different hearings with three different judges who have three different viewpoints, Steel says.

In the past, Steel -- as well as her colleagues -- heard cases that had other matters pending before one or two other judges. If a judge did not pull the other files, he/she would not be aware of all the issues in the case. Steel says judges need to know everything going on in a family's life to make the proper decision.

Although not all the Family Court judges did so, Steel says it was her practice to pull all the files in a case -- even those before another judge.

"It was double judicial review," she says. "This will cut back on extra judicial time."

Now judges will be "more up to speed with families," Steel says.

It also should cut down on legal expenses. Attorneys for a particular client will attend only one hearing on two or three matters rather than two or three separate hearings.

The exceptions will be guardianship, juvenile and mental matters. They will continue to be handled separately.

The court's computer system will link subsequent cases filed by the same parties to the lead case, which will be assigned to one judge.

Steel and the legislative subcommittee that recommended the One Judge, One Family model noted that the founders of Family Court intended that appropriate coordination and integration of multiple cases involving the same persons would be established.

It makes sense, and should result in more consistent rulings. It also should mean less time litigants will have to spend in court.

Another goal of the One Judge, One Family model is to focus efforts -- right from the start -- on the child's needs as they relate to his/her relationship with both parents, child support and whether there is domestic violence, which would require a protection order.

Keeping the focus on the child in Family Court should be of paramount concern. The One Judge, One Family model is a giant step in that direction.