Court Integration Plan Gaining Momentum
By Michael J. Trickey
King County Superior Court is a general jurisdiction trial court. However, we organize our management of cases in four primary areas: criminal, civil, juvenile and family. If a case involves a child, it is heard either as a juvenile court case (with supporting therapeutic courts) or as a family court matter.
Juvenile court is located near Seattle University at 1211 East Alder. Juvenile court cases include juvenile offenders, at-risk youth, children in need of services, truancies and most dependency matters. Some of these cases also are handled at the Regional Justice Center in Kent (“RJC”).
Family court matters are heard on the commissioner calendars and in Unified Family Court. Family court cases involve dissolutions of marriage, legal separations, paternity cases, adoptions, child support, domestic violence petitions and some of the dependency matters. The family court calendars are scheduled at the King County Courthouse in Seattle and at the RJC.
The Superior Court does its work with children and families in collaboration with many other organizations. These include numerous municipal, county and state agencies; public, nonprofit and private social service providers; school districts; community partners; pro bono service providers and other groups. The court’s partnership with these entities is critical to the success of the programs that the court provides.
For years, beginning with the planning for Unified Family Court in 1993, the court has worked toward combining children and family matters into a simpler, more integrated system. At the same time, the court, in conjunction with the county executive and council, has begun to emphasize intervention and treatment as alternatives to incarceration for juvenile offenders. However, there remains considerable fragmentation in the handling of these types of cases.
These efforts have led to the current targeted superior court operational master plan (“OMP”) to review the operations and potential facilities needs for the court’s juvenile, family law and supporting therapeutic courts. This current OMP began as part of the 2005 annual budget.
The court, along with the county executive and council, the clerk’s office, the prosecuting attorney, the office of public defense, various other executive agencies, social service providers and the private bar are hard at work in the endeavor. An experienced, nationally recognized criminal justice consultant group, Policy Studies, Inc., is conducting the analysis that will serve as the basis for the OMP.
It is my privilege to serve as co-chair of the Cabinet Oversight Group for this effort, along with Maura Brueger of the County Executive’s Office. Chief Juvenile Court Judge Patricia Clark also is actively involved. The OMP should be finished some time this spring and transmitted to the County Council for review in May or June. I’ll keep you informed on further steps in upcoming columns. n
