Efficiency, Therapeutic Justice, Mediation, and Evaluation: Reflections on a Survey of Unified Family Courts

Abstract

In cooperation with the American Bar Association's Coordinating Council on Unified Family Courts, faculty and students of Hofstra University's Center for Children, Families and the Courts conducted a survey of various courts in states we believed had made a commitment to implement a unified family court (UFC) model. Based on a questionnaire developed by the Center and the Coordinating Council, Hofstra Law School students interviewed court administrators, family court judges, or knowledgeable members of the family court bar in eighteen states. A detailed description of the survey, its methodology, and its findings is being published in the Family Court Review.' The key findings of the survey are summarized later in this article.