Chief’sColumn Your 2023 Circuit Family Court Divisions

We’re almost through the first quarter of 2023, and I’m sure you’ve already begun to see some of the exciting changes happening this year. We have new judges, we have some new courtrooms, and we have a few things up in the air!

As of this writing, Division 30 is “unmanned” with Judge Mize’s ascension to the appellate bench (congrats!). Until a new judge is appointed/assigned, I am managing Division 30 with the help of Senior Judges, an awesome support staff, and my generous colleagues. Please, continue to use 30Orange@ninthcircuit.org for all communications about those cases.

On February 6, we expanded our Domestic Violence (DV) divisions to four judges – Judge Kraynick (also the Associate Administrative Judge for Family), Judge Leach, Judge Kerestes, and Judge Laurent. This expansion enables us to return related Domestic Relations (DR) cases to the DV division with companion injunctions to ensure efficiency and consistency of judicial orders.

Division 41 is now the fourth DV division. All cases in 41 that do not have active injunctions will be distributed among the remaining DR divisions helmed by Judge Deen, Judge Nix-Walker, Judge McCarthy, Judge Barbour, myself, and the newly assigned judge to Division 30 - TBA. I have Division 38 and the role of Administrative Judge over Circuit Family Divisions. To minimize a backlog and confusion, I will continue to cover preset hearings from Division 41 in my new Courtroom 10C throughout February and March. If you have a case in 41, look it up now to see where it has landed! Yes, this is a busy spring!

And, yes, our family judges in Osceola County are up to three full DR/DV dockets helmed by Judge Netcher, Judge Snure, and Judge Collins.

All of the Family Judges are endeavoring to make sure posted policies and procedures are reflective of your experience with our offices. After the year-plus of innovation in DV by Judge Rodriguez, we are continuing to make improvements in the DV division. There will be changes in how we refer cases to magistrates in the DR divisions, and we hope to make that process more expedient. If you do not find the Family Court information you need on my page of the Ninth Circuit website, feel free to contact my office. As your Family Admin. Judge, I would love to solve all problems and solve them quickly, but there are limits to what I can do in most situations. Sometimes a sounding board is not what an aggrieved lawyer is looking for – but that’s all that we can offer. Having spent 24-years in your oft-beleaguered shoes, I do understand many of your day-to-day frustrations. Now, being on the other side of things, I ask you to consider the following.

Family law work is different. We know that the outcomes of family cases can have lasting impact on children and adults. How we get to those outcomes also has impact. Typically, the child’s behaviors that litigants want to blame on the other parent are the exact behaviors the experts tell us are resulting from high-conflict divorce. At the risk of stating the obvious: the stress, sickness, and polarization of the last few years have left an indelible mark on the consciousness of all of us. The mental health professionals you work with will tell you – we are stressed out. No one makes the best discernments or decisions when overworked, overwhelmed and under the proverbial gun. Not every phone call from a high maintenance client must, or should, result in an emergency motion. Stay neutral and remember you were not there and do not know what happened, and folks in these situations are often not practicing the highest order of self-insight. When their meltdown does not seem to fit the facts as you know them – slow down. Get help for them, take care of yourself, and remember to breathe. Tomorrow fixes many problems.

Thank you for your hard work, dedication and (usually) commendable level of professionalism. We look forward to seeing you in our courtroom (and on video!) and working with you to ensure the most peaceful and productive year for your clients and our Ninth Circuit families.