THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
The proposed new family court system, heralded by lawmakers and court officials, won't happen soon.
The 1993 General Assembly, impressed by pilot programs in Chesapeake and other places, approved the idea and suggested the new system begin in 1995. But legislators haven't been able to agree on a way to finance it.
The new system would bring all the domestic cases currently spread across the courts into one court. Family court judges would hear adoptions and divorces as well as cases of child custody and child abuse.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, suggested tacking $4 onto the filing fees for district court cases. The measure would have raised an estimated $18 million after two years of the courts' operation.
Gartlan's bill, however, died in the Senate Finance Committee last week.
Del. James F. Almand, D-Arlington, fared only slightly better: His funding bill was sent for further study to the House of Appropriations Committee.
Almand's other bill, which deals with the technical aspects of family courts but doesn't provide for funding, cleared the House 94-1 and was expected to reach the Senate floor today.
The bill was amended to put off family courts until 1998, with hopes that there will be enough money available to rejuvenate the family court concept.
Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, said lawmakers who like the family court concept may not like the idea of increasing the cost for people filing district court cases, half of which are traffic-related.
But, ``I've been in favor of it from the beginning,'' he said. ``I think it will help keep families together.''
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB