September 2019
Full Court Press
is the newsletter of the University of Baltimore School of Law
Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC).
|
|
An Emerging Movement for Caring in Court
|
|
By Barbara A. Babb and Judith D. Moran
The
New York Times
recently put a spotlight on the quality of judicial decision-making, illustrating the need for an ethic of care in our courts, a subject about which we are passionate here at CFCC. Two articles, involving unrelated cases, provided remarkable insight into the judicial process — one lacking in care and the other demonstrating it at the highest level.
|
|
a Slap on the Wrist?,
a New Jersey appeals court reprimanded a trial court judge for callous comments made in a sexual assault case involving teenagers. The judge's remarks appeared to favor the alleged assailant over the alleged victim. Northwestern Law Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer characterized this failing as a “care gap” in our courts. In the aftermath of public outcry, the judge resigned.
In contrast to the New Jersey case, the second article,
In ’99 He Was Sentenced to Life. Twenty Years Later, I Set Him Free
, is federal Judge Robin Rosenberg's detailed description of how and why she decided to release a man convicted of drugs and weapons charges. Judge Rosenberg took great care to learn this man’s life story, including the extraordinary personal circumstances that led to his criminal behavior and the steps he took in prison to achieve and maintain exemplary conduct.
Rising to the Demand for Care
No matter what the case or in which court they serve, our judges do not have easy jobs. Courts today deal with people in extreme crisis: victims of sexual and physical violence, immigrant children separated from their parents, young adults overdosing on the side of the road, foster children still trying to put their lives together when they are well into young adulthood, and countless other examples. Much like patients in an emergency room, the individuals using our nation’s courts need and deserve outcomes based on caring.
Courts must undertake a deliberate, systematic, and unified effort to instill holistic and compassionate attention to those involved in the justice system. This initiative must start with a firm commitment to the principle of the ethic of care. My colleague, Judith D. Moran, and I advocate for this approach in our new book,
Caring for Families in Court: An Essential Approach to Family Justice
.
This effort must involve a long-term investment in the training of law students, attorneys, judges, and court personnel about the skills needed to practice justice with care. An ethic of care in the legal landscape means a comprehensive view of justice — one that imposes a duty on legal professionals to apply relevant law fairly and with attention to the individual circumstances that drive people to court.
We Know What to Do
We already possess much of the knowledge and many of the resources we need to create this transformative shift in court principles, structure, and operation. We must understand and apply more widely existing theories surrounding court reform, such as therapeutic jurisprudence and the ecology of human development. Implementing an ethic of care requires knowing and understanding a litigant’s story. To assist with this undertaking, narrative theory and practice guide the practitioner in active listening, attentiveness, empathic regard for others, and purposeful retelling of the client’s story.
The application to the law of ethic of care principles and practices is a tall order, as we understand that law is a rational enterprise. Does caring compromise the requirement of judicial neutrality, and does it create role confusion for lawyers and judges? The late Judith Kaye, a former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, has answered this question in part: “A judge can be interested in the details of the parties’ situation without crossing the professional divide between jurist and therapist. Hands-on justice doesn’t have to mean hand-holding by the judge.” At CFCC, we are heartened to see that the discussion of judicial decision-making — and potential for improvement — has emerged in public discourse. Is it the beginning of a movement for caring in court? We certainly hope so.
Barbara A. Babb
(top photo) is an Associate Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts.
Judith D. Moran
, is a former Adjunct Professor at the law school. They are the co-authors of
Caring for Families in Court: An Essential Approach to Family Justice.
|
|
CFCC
’s Truancy Court Program in Five Schools
|
|
CFCC's Truancy Court Program (TCP) team is getting ready for school again! Beginning in mid-September, TCP will be helping to reduce truancy in the following schools:
- Academy of College and Career Exploration (ACCE)
- Baltimore Design School
- Furley Elementary
- Mount Royal Middle Elementary/Middle and,
- Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy
The TCP is an in-school, non-punitive, voluntary program to reduce truancy by identifying and addressing the root cause of each child's absences and by reconnecting students and their families with their schools. The TCP employs a holistic approach that includes mentoring, consistent follow-up, social services and legal guidance, and the powerful presence of a judge who volunteers at the school to lead the effort.
This is CFCC's 15th year implementing the TCP and working with Baltimore City students to reduce truancy.
We want to extend a big THANK YOU to the judges, grantors, UB law students, participating schools and their staff members, and CFCC staff who make the TCP possible.
|
|
The Honorable Yvette M. Bryant of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City with a graduate of the Truancy Court Program
|
|
Noteworthy
Presentations, Collaborations and Events
|
Singapore Presentations on Family Courts:
Professor Barbara Babb will speak on "Five Years of
Family Justice Courts:
Sharpening the Vision" at Singapore's International Advisory Council Meeting on October 1. On October 2, Professor Babb will speak on "Creating a Caring Unified Family Court" at Singapore's Family Justice Practice Forum. Singapore, a sovereign, island city-state with a population of nearly 6 million, reorganized its family court in 2014 to reduce the adversarial nature of family cases and resolve them expeditiously by employing therapeutic jurisprudence.
AFCC/CFCC Training:
In collaboration with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), CFCC will host its annual trainings on Dec. 2–5, 2019. Debra Carter, PhD, will present
Essential Elements of Parenting Coordination,
including an update on AFCC’s new Guidelines for Parenting Coordination, Dec. 2–3. Philip Stahl, PhD, ABPP (Forensic), will present
Critical Issues in Child Custody: To Share or Not to Share
, Dec. 4–5.
For more information and to register click here.
|
|
Nation's First Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law Now Exclusively Online
|
Beginning with the Fall 2019 semester, the University of Baltimore School of Law is offering its innovative
Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law entirely online.
The certificate program, administered by CFCC, is designed for new attorneys just beginning to practice family law and for experienced attorneys seeking to add Family Law expertise to their practice.
The fast-paced curriculum blends theory and practice and offers knowledge and skills that lawyers can use immediately through a hands-on, real-world experiential curriculum.
Financial aid is available. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until classes are filled.
|
|
|
 |
Authors Barbara A. Babb and Judith D. Moran envision the family court as a "care center" and make a compelling case that reforms to the family justice system are necessary to achieve positive, long-lasting outcomes for families and children.
|
|
|
|
CFCC's
Truancy Court Program Toolkit, Second Edition
provides a step-by-step guide to show individual schools and entire jurisdictions how to start and maintain an effective truancy reduction program. The
Toolkit
can be adapted to suit your school and students.
|
|
|
|
The Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts promotes policies and practices that unite families, communities and the justice system to improve the lives of children and families and the health of communities. CFCC advocates the use of therapeutic jurisprudence, the understanding that the legal system has an effect on behavior, emotions and mental health.
Barbara A. Babb
is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law; Founder and Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC); Director of the Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law program at the University of Baltimore School of Law; and Editor-in-Chief of
Family Court Review
.
CFCC Staff and Contributors
Rebecca Stahl, CFCC Deputy Director; Michele Hong-Polansky, CFCC Program Manager; Arion Alston, Truancy Court Program Mentor; Eileen Canfield, Truancy Court Program Social Worker; Katie Davis, Truancy Court Program Attorney;
Spencer Hall, Truancy Court Program Coordinator;
Katrice Williams, CFCC Program Administrative Specialist.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
