New York plan addresses drug abuse and domestic violence in family court.

Chief Judge Judith Kaye of New York unveiled a statewide Family Justice Program in April, announcing more than 50 initiatives and legislative proposals designed to reform the way state courts deal with divorce, juvenile delinquency, child abuse, and domestic violence.

"This year alone, over 1 million children, parents, and guardians will turn to the courts to resolve matters that touch the heart of their daily lives," said Kaye.

The new program would consolidate various aspects of family law and place some matters traditionally handled in criminal court under family court jurisdiction. The program would also offer an array of new outreach services and standardize many current procedures.

For example, one of the program's least controversial proposals is to standardize the form used to obtain an uncontested divorce. At present, only 15 of the state's 62 counties use the same form. (Daniel Wise, Court's New Tools Aim at Family Violence, N.Y.L.J., Apr. 17, 1997, at 1.)

More controversial proposals include:

* a parent drug treatment court to monitor parents who are drug abusers and who have been involved in child abuse or neglect,

* night family courts to provide improved access and better emergency response in domestic violence cases,

* enforcement measures to ensure compliance with child support rulings,

* divorce packets that allow self-represented litigants to file uncontested divorces,

* a fast-track procedure for adoptions, and

* teen courts as alternatives for young offenders who commit minor crimes.

Consolidation of divorce matters in a single court is "long overdue," according to New York attorney Thomas Schimmerling, chair of ATLA's Family Law Section. "It's an embarrassment to have to explain to clients that we may have to go to three courts," he said. "We have a separate court for child support, we deal with the divorce in supreme court [New York's trial-level courts], then handle custody and visitation issues in another."

By putting divorce forms on the Internet and training community center personnel to help people fill them out, the new plan would encourage people to file for uncontested divorces without the aid of counsel. Schimmerling would not support that idea unless the family had no assets and no children.

"The parties do not know their rights," he said. "Ninety percent of the people I meet think that if they decide to end the marriage they forfeit all their marital property. And, of course, that is not the law. When there are pensions, property, responsibility for children, I could see one nightmare after another coming out of that system."

On the other hand, Schimmerling feels that appointing a judge to monitor families who have experienced domestic violence, child abuse, or drug addiction is "an excellent idea."

Kaye pointed out that drug abuse is a factor in 75 percent of child neglect cases. Under the plan, a judge would monitor a parent's progress through court-ordered treatment programs.

Schimmerling said some training for judges would be needed for this part of the plan to work. "There is much disparity in the way judges view drug addiction," he said. "Some see it as a recovery problem, getting the person into a rehab program. But others see it as a criminal matter, where someone is simply choosing to use these substances and should be punished."

Some parts of the plan mirror programs already in use experimentally in various parts of the state. Specialized judges to handle drug problems and domestic violence cases were named in the supreme courts and criminal courts last year. Drug courts are operating in Brooklyn and Rochester, and a specialized court for domestic violence opened earlier this year in Manhattan.

Some parts of the plan can be executed directly by the courts, some require hearings and periods for public comment under current law, and other parts of the plan will require new legislation. The Office of Court Administration is anticipating receipt of federal grants to pay for the drug components of the plan.

Kaye said she took this action to prevent "human recycling." Several initiatives are aimed at breaking cycles of drug abuse and family violence that bring the same family members back to court repeatedly. With the millennium approaching, she said, "The time to revitalize the family court experiment is at hand."