Family‐Centered Practice in Florida: Family Court Actions and Perceptions

Family and dependency courts can become valuable partners in efforts to stem the tide of child maltreatment using a family‐centered strategy. Florida's response to a 2008 federal Child and Family Services Review included a commitment to implement family‐centered practice in child protection services and the courts that hear these cases. Evidence of this implementation was documented in a formative evaluation conducted in 2010 and 2011. Findings based on interviews with dependency judges, Children's Legal Services attorneys, and Guardian ad Litem volunteers provide useful insights on how these practices were perceived and implemented.     

Improving Outcomes for a Juvenile Justice Model Court: A Realist Evaluation

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the Erie County, New York, Juvenile Justice Model Court on court improvement and improved case outcomes for youth and families. A quasi‐experimental design was used within a realist evaluation paradigm, with four independent groups in four years. Court improvement was measured by the number of days between appearance and disposition, and improved case outcomes by the extent to which penetration into the juvenile justice system was reduced. Both outcomes were significantly improved, and it was found that the Model Court intervention was the main predictor for their improvement. Youth with reduced penetration had lower levels of recidivism.     

Relative Placement: The Best Answer for Our Foster Care System

This article briefly traces the history of the placement of children out of their homes because of parental abuse or neglect. The preference for relative placement is a recent occurrence. The advantages of relative placement instead of foster or group care are summarized as well as the disadvantages. Relative placement rates across the country are about 32%. Several jurisdictions have much higher placement rates including Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Los Angeles, California, is experimenting with social work practices that have produced over 80% relative placement rates during the past year. How both of these jurisdictions accomplish high relative placement rates is described in detail. Judges should persuade their own social service agencies to adopt these practices.     

Surrogacy,Identity, Parentage and Childrenʼs Rights – Through the Eyes of a Child

In this article I will focus on two important aspects of children's rights which are impacted by artificial reproductive technology (particularly surrogacy); being the rights to identity and the rights to legal parentage. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges the importance of a child's right to identity, to be protected from discrimination on the basis of the status or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians or family members. For many children born through surrogacy arrangements, they may have only one or no legally recognized parent. The adults caring for them may have parental responsibility orders but this falls well short of providing children with the benefits and protections that legal parentage does. The issue of identity can be complex. Increasingly, states have recognized the importance of children knowing the circumstances of their birth and being able to access biological and genetic information including medical information. From a child's perspective the issues of identity and parenthood are intertwined. Given the importance of identity, more needs to be done to ensure that identifying information about children born as a result of artificial reproductive technology is properly stored and readily accessible for these children. Denying a child legal parentage when there are no concerns about the care being provided by their parents cannot be justified when considered from a children's rights perspective.     

The Protection of Confidentiality in Australian Family Law

This paper identifies and discusses the legislative provisions which protect confidentiality in family law proceedings in Australia. The purpose of discussing these protections is two‐fold: firstly, to identify the scope and operation of these protections for Australian legal practitioners; secondly, to allow comparison of Australian protections to those offered in other jurisdictions. This paper will consider duties of confidentiality and evidential privileges in the context of settlement negotiation, mediation, arbitration, lawyer‐client relationships and medical, counselling and other therapeutic relationships. The rationale for the protection of confidentiality in some of these relationships and circumstances, but not in others, will also be considered in an attempt to understand why it is so.     

More Good Than Harm: Legal Orphans and the New Jersey Post‐Termination Project

In 1997, Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act to increase the rate at which states achieve permanent placements for children in foster care. Despite the Congressional mandate, the rate of permanent placements has lagged. This article discusses the development and implementation of the Post‐Termination Project employed by the New Jersey Superior Court—Essex Vicinage to address the rate at which permanent placements are achieved. The Project, which relies upon a multi‐agency approach overseen by a single judge, has been successful at increasing the permanent placement rate in the Essex Vicinage.