The FI has involved a software enhancement to the court system's already sophisticated case management system (GENESIS). The FI will enable the accurate, fast, and efficient access to information by court personnel and program staff regarding all court cases. The FI promises to minimize conflicting judgments and orders; provide up-to-date, comprehensive information on families to appropriate parties; aid in the elimination of the duplication of efforts in the information-gathering process; and decrease actual time spent and the long-run cost of gathering important and relevant information. The evaluation was a four-phase process that focused on preprogram needs, program design/development, program implementation, and program outcomes; however, since at the time of the evaluation the FI had not progressed beyond the design and development stage, the evaluation was limited to preprogram assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Although the evaluation has collected a significant amount of data, these data can only provide a cross-sectional view of how the court process currently functions, prior to the implementation of the FI. For the most part, data sources confirmed that the current court information system is adequate if not extremely adept at providing useful information that facilitates court decisions and provides pertinent information. Still, the data collected clearly showed that the FI could result in potential benefits to the Riverside County Superior Court System. Suggestions for project improvement include consideration of lower level administrators and judicial court staff as active members of the project team; consideration of arranging for the computer software designer to work closely with those who would use the Index most often; adherence to the project time line; decision on a clear linking process for the software enhancement; clear decisions about how the FI is to be implemented; and consideration of methods for disseminating information about the FI to educate all those who would be affected by its implementation. This report also outlines the challenges/obstacles, and project limitations; the challenges and obstacles to the evaluation team; evaluation limitations; and recommendations for future evaluation. 11 references and appended conceptual model of the Family Evaluation Project, a model of FI, and a chart of the Court Comparison Study