Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 4, 1994 TAG: 9401040159
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The legislature last year approved a proposal for a system that would handle almost all family-related legal matters. In the session that begins Jan. 12, the General Assembly will hear the state Judicial Council's specific plans for the system and decide how to pay for it.
The council, appointed by the state Supreme Court, estimates the system would cost $9.5 million in 1995, the first full year of operation.
A $3 increase in the processing fee for criminal, traffic and civil cases in general district courts would cover the cost of the new court, the council said. Criminal and traffic fees now are $22, and the civil fee is $12.
The cost includes the judges, the clerks and the equivalent of 73 full-time mediators. The state would pay private mediators to handle some divorce cases.
The judges would be assigned to areas based on population, with an average of one new judge per judicial circuit. Fairfax County, the most populous locality in the state, would get four judges, while circuits with smaller populations would share seven judgeships.
The judges would be added to the juvenile and domestic relations courts, which would be renamed family courts.
The family courts would hear all matters involving divorce, custody, support, visitation and adoption, as well as handling most criminal cases with juvenile defendants.
Robert N. Baldwin, the top administrator of the state court system, said the family court may get more attention this year than it did last.
"This time we'll be asking for money," Baldwin said. "Any budget amendment that costs money, obviously that's going to create a lot more attention and focus a lot more debate on it."
Baldwin said he hopes that the legislators will see that the proposal, while more expensive than the original price tag of $7 million, is within the concept they approved last year.
Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, said he has questions about the assumptions the council and Baldwin used in allocating judges, clerks and mediators to less-populous localities.
The proposal says some of those courts need "a fourth of a clerk, a fourth of a mediator, a fourth of a judge," Trumbo said. "That's a scary thought."
Fairfax Circuit Court Clerk John T. Frey questioned whether "a whole new bureaucracy" was needed. Frey said he also feared that having the family court judges hear divorce cases would divert them from where they are needed the most - trying to remedy the delinquency of juveniles.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB