{"id":435,"date":"2007-01-04T12:13:58","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2007\/01\/04\/follow-up-for-stale-divorce-cases\/"},"modified":"2007-01-04T12:13:58","modified_gmt":"2007-01-04T16:13:58","slug":"follow-up-for-stale-divorce-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2007\/01\/04\/follow-up-for-stale-divorce-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"follow-up for stale divorce cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether lawyers are involved or not, divorce cases often languish on court dockets, incomplete and unattended.\u00a0 Some states, such as New York, have administrative rules which prod judges to keep cases from getting stale.\u00a0 In others, like California, there are apparently no built-in mechanisms to make sure\u00a0that each\u00a0pending lawsuit continues to actively move toward a resolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An article this week in the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, explores the problem — which they suggest is particularly prevalent for “do-it-yourself” divorces\u00a0— and tells of one judge’s attempts to find solutions for the pro se<\/em> litigants and others with stale divorce cases. (L.A. Times<\/em>, “Do-it-yourself divorce doesn’t always sever ties<\/a>,” by Jessica Garrison,\u00a0Jan. 1, 2007)\u00a0\u00a0(Hat Tip: George Wallace, at D&E<\/em><\/a>)\u00a0 The article focuses on Judge Mark A. Juhas\u00a0of the\u00a0Los Angeles County\u00a0Superior Court<\/a>, who\u00a0discovered that:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“about a third of the roughly 3,600 divorce cases filed in 2001 and 2002 and assigned to his courtroom remain open.\u00a0 Some of those couples may have reconciled, but Juhas suspects that many more are stuck or may even think they are divorced when they are not.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"expect\u00a0 The Times<\/em> notes that “In California, getting divorced takes at least three steps: filing divorce papers, serving them on the spouse and then writing and processing a judgment with the court. The process can be more complicated if there are children or fights over assets.”\u00a0\u00a0 Last spring, Judge Juhas began calling in about 100 people a month whose divorce cases have languished and asking them if they need help.\u00a0 He has found that about half of them still want to be divorced, but need some help (e.g<\/em>., with entering\u00a0the judgment after\u00a0a divorce is granted). At the sessions, attorneys, some volunteer, others employees of the court’s family law resource center, help the parties figure out their status\u00a0and assist people with the necesssary paperwork.<\/p>\n

The article states that court officials are considering expanding Judge Juhas’ approach across the State.\u00a0\u00a0 California already does far more than most states to help “self-represented”\u00a0litigants with family and divorce<\/a> law issues — from extensive online Self-Help information<\/a>\u00a0and forms<\/a>, to Self-Help Centers with trained employees and volunteers in courthouses, to providing family law facilitators<\/a> in each court, who help people without lawyers (regardless of the financial status) navigate the litigation process from start to finish.\u00a0\u00a0 We can assume that the problem is at least as bad in states with less robust assistance for the self-represented.<\/p>\n

\"tinyRedCheck\"\u00a0Clearly, the continuing problem of\u00a0incomplete divorce\u00a0cases in a model self-help state like California underscores the conclusion of experts — such as Bonnie Hough of\u00a0the California Center for Families, Children and the Courts\u00a0and Richard Zorza of SelfHelpSupport<\/em>.org, who are quoted in the article — that adequate self-help assistance must include information and procedures that help pro se<\/em> litigants understand, and accomplish,\u00a0the steps necessary to complete the process<\/em> they start by petitioning the court.\u00a0\u00a0 Let’s hope that Judge Juhas’ experience will spur experimentation and implementation of efficient and effective follow-up programs across his state and the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether lawyers are involved or not, divorce cases often languish on court dockets, incomplete and unattended.\u00a0 Some states, such as New York, have administrative rules which prod judges to keep cases from getting stale.\u00a0 In others, like California, there are apparently no built-in mechanisms to make sure\u00a0that each\u00a0pending lawsuit continues to actively move toward a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-items"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}