THE TASK FORCE on Family Law, created by statute in 2003, was given two years to work on a proposal to make the courts’ handling of divorce, child custody and other domestic relations matters less adversarial by changing statutes, court rules and procedures.

The 21-member group, chaired by NH Judicial Council executive director Nina Gardner, included lawyers, judges, representatives of the Child Support Services Division, social service professionals, legislators and laypersons familiar with the family law system and procedures. The 71-page report released Nov. 1 is an ambitious and detailed manifesto of recommendations, observations, and aspirations. It provides its own "RSA Kid" statute regarding child-related issues now covered in RSA 458.

The task force calls for a fundamental reorientation of a trial-based system. Divorcing parents with children would develop detailed parenting plans in collaboration with mediators and other helping professionals instead of preparing for trial. The envisioned system would attempt to restructure families rather than merely to provide a forum for an adversarial trial. It would replace a system that, in the task force’s view, attempts to impose uniformity in the handling of unique family situations and which stresses parents’ rights to ‘custody’ rather than children’s needs for coordinated parenting. The task force’s view of a "child-centered" approach to the restructuring of post-divorce families would also require attorneys to rethink their traditional roles as advocates for divorce clients.

It even creates a new professional role in the courts— a "parenting coordinator" who would be available to promptly and non-judicially resolve many of the everyday issues that arise in high-conflict divorces.

A major priority of this new family law system would be the channeling of most divorcing couples to mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. "Although less than 10 percent of cases ultimately require a trial, shortly after a case is filed, courts begin to schedule them as if a trial is inevitable," the report’s introduction notes. "In the future, courts should provide ‘off ramps’ that encourage counseling and dispute resolution alternatives. A judge or master and a lengthy adjudicated trial should be the last door (or ramp) available, the ‘court of last resort’ when the parties are unable to resolve the matter themselves."

The task force advocates the adoption of a new culture, one that escapes the archaic "child as property" notions embedded in the current system. "The long-held notions of ‘custody,’ ‘support,’ and ‘visitation’ are value-laden terms which denote concepts of ownership and denial, both of which increase adversarialness," the task force report said.

The task force report is to be considered along with several other initiatives aimed at reforming the courts to adapt to the 21st century. NH Supreme Court Chief Justice John T. Broderick, Jr., has indicated that he intends to convene a large, broad-based group of citizens as well as justice system stakeholders to consider the recommendations made by several entities approaching these issues from slightly different perspectives: The Family Law Task Force, the court’s Task Force on Justice System Needs & Priorities (which issued its report in September), the Pro Se Task Force (which reported last January), the Family Division Implementation Committee, and a legislative Commission on Child Support and Commission to Study Child Support and Related Child Custody Issues (both of which are due to report Dec. 1).

Although many family law attorneys in practice may try to handle their cases to reduce acrimony for the sake of harmonious joint parenting, the profession’s traditional view of representation would need to change under the task force’s model. The task force, for example, prescribes that: "Legal training should reflect a shift from a focus on competition and winning to a focus on problem-solving and reorganization of the family. It should encourage increased consciousness of the fact that, while advocating for the individual client, the attorney must also keep in the forefront the needs and future life of the family and its youngest members."

The report brims with practical ideas to reinforce its aims, such as discounting filing fees for divorce filers who submit a permanent parenting plan along with the divorce filing; providing localized resource guides for attorneys, judges and litigants to find parenting support, counseling, mediation and other services; and instituting bench protocols for greater consistency in judicial decision-making. It advocates that lawmakers state their aims when passing statutes so that legislative intent is clearer.

The report is available, in several parts, on the Bar’s Web site under News Releases.

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