Citation

Schwarz CD. Fam. Court Rev. 2004; 42(2): 304-320.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.174-1617.2004.tb00651.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Fragmented court systems are especially problematic for domestic violence victims because they typically are involved in more than one proceeding that stems from the same pattern of abuse. The proceedings are handled in different courts and before different judges, who are often unaware of these orders being issued in other proceedings. Consequently, conflicting orders are prevalent and the protection and needs of victims are often not met. A unified family court, on the other hand, provides one court with the subject-matter jurisdiction to handle all family-related matters and one judge to hear all cases that involve a single family, resulting in conflicting orders being issued less frequently. Additionally, the needs of victims are better served as a result of the services component. Given the fragmented state of the court systems in New York and Pennsylvania, United States; Alberta, Canada; and Australia, unified family courts should be implemented in each locality.

Language: en