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One Judge--One Family: Butte County's Unified Family Court

NCJ Number
182461
Journal
Journal of the Center for Children and the Courts Volume: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 171-179
Author(s)
Steven J. Howell
Date Published
1999
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the Unified County Court of Butte County, CA.
Abstract
The Superior Court of California, County of Butte instituted a unified family court in June 1998. In a unified family court such as Butte’s, one judge handles all cases involving a family, regardless of case type. The court’s unified calendar, named HOPE (Helping Organize Parents Effectively), is outcome-based and relies on multidisciplinary team members as service providers. The court attempts to fashion orders that are consistent and provide for coordination in the delivery of services to assist the family in resolving their legal and personal issues. Another outcome is the reduction of pending cases involving the family. In order to not overload the agencies participating in the experiment, the court limits the size of the calendar to 15 families at any one time. The families are selected through a nomination process that involves a review of their situation and cases by the court and a designee from each of the four agencies that provide social services believed to be critical to the success of almost every family involved in the HOPE Court. The article describes procedures and criteria for accepting a nomination and HOPE Court procedures once a family is accepted.