First District unification effort makes headway

By Beth Bishop Perrigo, Deputy Court Administrator, District One, and D. Michael Baier Jr., court information intern

The First Judicial District has launched a unification initiative to improve the resolution of cases involving children and families.

Chief Judge Kitty Brennan announced a Unification initiative for the First District Children's and Family Court in 2006 and created a Unification committee, consisting of: Judge Maxine A. White, presiding judge of the Family Division; Judge Mary Triggiano, presiding judge of the Children's Division; Judge Karen Christenson; Mike Bruch, family court commissioner; Beth Bishop Perrigo, deputy district court administrator; Liz Finn Gorski, children's court coordinator; Janet Nelson, lead attorney child support enforcement; and Susan Medina, paralegal. 

The mission of the Family and Children's Unification Project is to provide children and families with a more accessible way of resolving Family and Children's Court matters through the combined and coordinated efforts of Children's Court, Family Court and other adjunct agencies that provide services to children and families.  The project's goal is to get all of one family’s cases in front of one judge or a team of judges to avoid inconveniences and costs to families and the taxpayers and increase the wisdom of judicial decisions and resources available to families.

In launching its initiative, Milwaukee joins a number of other counties with unified family courts, including Kenosha and La Crosse.

The Milwaukee effort had the early assistance of Judge Susan Carbon of New Hampshire, who met with the Chief Judge, presiding judges from Children’s and Family Court and Deputy DCA Perrigo to describe the successful Unification efforts in her state.  In addition, Judges White and Triggiano attended the American Bar Association Summit on Unified Courts in Baltimore, Maryland, along with Judge John Albert and the Dane County team. Information gathered from these events was shared with the committee to develop the First Judicial District Family and Children's Court Unification project goals:

• analyze cases involving both the Children's and Family Divisions for the purpose of sharing case specific information;
• improve the quality of judicial decision-making in Children's and Family Court by assigning appropriate cases to the initiative;
• provide specialized training and continuing education to Family Court and Children's Court judges and staff in the areas of substantive family and juvenile law, case management, cultural competency, family dynamics, alcohol and substance abuse, mental health, child welfare, child development and domestic violence;
• reduce the adversarial nature of the legal process through the use of alternative dispute resolution, when appropriate;
• eliminate duplicative hearings;
• improve the case management of Family and Children's Courts cases in the initiative;
• increase the use and availability of community and court resources;
• provide better protection to victims of abuse and neglect and prevent future harm;
• improve access to the courts;
• improve and expand the use of technology in the courts; and
• provide professional and courteous service to all persons involved in the initiative.

A significant challenge to Milwaukee's successful unified court is the physical distance between the Family courts in downtown Milwaukee and the Children's Court Center six miles west of downtown.   To initially address this issue, the Chief Judge created the Family/Children's Unification Paralegal position held by Susan Medina.   In this position, Medina is responsible for cross referencing all new case filings at Children’s Court in Consolidated Court Automation Programs (CCAP) to determine if there are any corresponding Paternity/Family court cases.  She then completes a Children's/Family Court Unification Form and sends it to all corresponding courts.  The form details all pertinent information related to all court cases.  The Family and Children's court judges are now communicating with each other to improve the processing of a family’s cases.

Paternity testing has been streamlined between the Children's and Family divisions.  DNA test results are now shared to avoid duplicative testing. Children in Need of Protection and/or Services (CHIPS) DNA tests that have a 99 percent or greater probability of paternity are being used to establish paternity in Family Court.  Medina completes a Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgement Form or paternity interview and forwards the forms to Child Support Enforcement so a PA/FA case can be filed downtown.  Since the same family is more likely to initially appear at Children's Court, DNA testing prevents the family from having to make a trip to the downtown courthouse, reducing the likelihood of non-appearance of the parent in the paternity case (especially incarcerated parents who are produced to appear at Children's Court hearings) and expediting the support determinations.

Additionally, on November 14, 2007, a statewide unification group met in Madison to discuss unification efforts that are currently working in Wisconsin.  In addition to Brennan, White, Triggiano and Bishop Perrigo, attendees included: Dane County Circuit Court judges John C. Albert and Shelley Gaylord; Circuit Court Judge Todd W. Bjerke, La Crosse County; Circuit Court Judge Karen E. Christenson, Milwaukee County; District Two Court Administrator Kerry Connelly; District Seven Court Administrator Pat Brummond; Children’s Court Improvement Program Director Michelle Jensen-Goodwin; and Milwaukee County Children’s Court Coordinator Liz Finn Gorski.

As a result of the meeting, the group will continue to explore areas that could assist jurisdictions in their efforts to unify their court systems.  Area of common interest included: CCAP enhancements, legislative changes including those affecting confidentiality laws, conflicting standards and burdens, and mediation services.  The group agreed that they would keep in contact to explore additional unification efforts statewide.

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