How To Manage The Court Crisis

By Author: David D. Stein
Total Articles: 16
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The San Francisco Examiner reported on July 19, 2011 what San Francisco Family Law Attorneys have anticipated for many months.

The Superior Court has been hit with extraordinary budget cuts and will be dismissing 200 of the Court’s 480 workers. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein described the situation succinctly, "The future is very, very bleak for our courts."

What is even more dire for people looking to litigate their divorce, criminals are guaranteed a speedy trial. Constitutional guarantees mandate that criminal cases get precedence over civil matters. This means, again in the words of Presiding Judge Feinstein, "The civil justice system in San Francisco is collapsing".

25 courtrooms will close in September. Contested Divorce actions that previously took months to go to trial, will now take years. Self-help centers and judicial case management, which previously were merely over-worked and stretched thin, will be even worse in the future.

Every San Francisco Divorce Lawyer knows that the Family Law Judicial system has suffered a catastrophic financial blow. Couples who choose to ...
... litigate the end of their marriage are in for a process that previously was really slow and soon will be downright glacial in its pace.

What can be done?

I am unsure as to the issue of how to provide additional funding to the court system. These are complicated matters regarding increasing tax revenues and cutting costs. Way beyond my area of expertise.

I am absolutely certain of the answer as to how to obtain a divorce without a delay measured in years! The answer is mediation.

In mediation the divorcing couple meets with a mediator who is knowledgeable in the law and skilled in inter-personal communication techniques. The mediator helps guide the parties to an agreement that replaces the need for having a judicial officer decide the questions of property division, child custody and visitation as well as child and/or spousal support. That agreement, or stipulation, is then combined into a judgment that is signed by a judge and becomes the Order of the Court. There is never a “day in court” so there is no interminable waiting for a courtroom.

Now, more than ever, couples that merely wish to end their marriage, and are not hell-bent on starting a major war, are well advised to seek mediation as the fastest, least expensive, least painful way to move forward with their lives.

San Francisco Divorce Attorney : David D. Stein has been an attorney for 20 years and the founder of Liaise® Divorce Solutions. He is a trained mediator, dispute resolution specialist and lecturer on non-violent conflict management techniques and tools.