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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    April 01, 1997

    Wisconsin Lawyer April 1997: News Briefs

    News Briefs

    Professionals' Frustration Produces Child Advocacy Program

    Families First forges a coalition of lawyers, social workers, mediators and mental health professionals.

    Frustration proved the mother of invention for a La Crosse County program designed to help the children of divorcing parents.

    Families First strives to convince divorcing parents to set aside their conflicts to forge a written agreement spelling out how they will continue parenting their children. If they can't work out a placement and custody arrangement on their own after taking a mandatory co-parenting class, the program lends a hand through mediation, custody assessment and family therapy, reserving litigation as a last resort.

    Finger Pointing Gives Way to Cooperation

    In 1991 the Family Law Roundtable, a group of lawyers, social workers, mediators and mental health professionals from La Crosse and neighboring counties, met to vent their frustrations with the local divorce/child custody system and with each other. Attorneys, frustrated by a lack of understanding about their duties as advocates for their clients, were blamed for ruining childrens' lives. And the attorneys, for their part, didn't understand the ethical obligations forcing social workers and psychologists to refuse lawyers' calls to testify about the children under their treatment.

    "The first meeting sprang out of one particular case," said La Crosse attorney Tom Rhorer, who helped establish the program. "I was dealing with social workers, and we were frustrated with each other. We all knew what should be done, but we just couldn't get there. We finally got together and decided that the formal adversarial way was not the best model for a divorce-custody-child-care situation."

    The program sends divorcing parents to the mandatory Families First class, which emphasizes the stress children experience in divorce. What parents learn about their own priorities often reduces attorney involvement in the custody process. At the very least, said Rhorer, parents gain a better sense of managing their attorneys during divorce proceedings.

    The program also requires divorcing couples to enroll their children, ages 6 to 17, in Sandcastles, a program that helps children involved in a divorce realize that they are not alone. Children are encouraged, within interactive groups monitored by facilitators, to develop skills for coping and for communicating with their parents about the divorce.

    Mediation Spurs Parenting Plan

    Families First classes are team-taught by volunteer lawyers, mediators and therapists. If parents can't reach a parenting agreement in this class, mediation is their next option. Counselors working with the children involved can act as advocates for the children's needs without worrying about being called to testify.

    In March 1995 a custody assessment team program was organized in La Crosse County to settle cases left unresolved despite mediation efforts. These three-person teams, which include a guardian ad litem, a custody evaluator and a child development specialist, evaluate families before recommending a parenting plan. No divorce is granted until a parenting agreement is signed by both parents and filed with the court.

    At least 99 percent of the 1,400 divorcing parents who have gone through Families First gave the program a favorable evaluation, according to Rhorer and Mary Geske, director of Mediation & Family Court Services for La Crosse County.

    Before Families First was implemented in 1994, 10 to 15 of La Crosse County's child custody cases went to trial each year. Only one child custody case has gone to trial in La Crosse County out of 57 custody assessment team evaluations in the past two years.

    What pleases Geske most about Families First and Family Law Roundtable is the tight coalition it forges among local professionals.

    "We have people from all the disciplines volunteering their time," said Geske. "And we work well together. I think that speaks well for our community."

    Meeting Targets Bar Admission Health and Substance Abuse Questions

    Candidates seeking admission to the Wisconsin Bar currently face questions about their mental health and substance abuse histories on the Board of Bar Examiners (BBE) application's questionnaire. Whether the BBE, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agency that oversees admission to practice law in Wisconsin, will retain, modify or eliminate the questions from the application is the subject of a meeting to be held May 8 at 2 p.m. in Milwaukee, at Marquette University's Alumni Building, Ballroom A.

    The BBE seeks comments from interested parties on whether such questions are necessary in determining whether an applicant possesses the character and fitness to practice law, one of the board's mandated duties. Issues regarding these questions have been raised by some who believe such questions might discourage applicants from seeking appropriate therapy and they could violate the Americans With Disabilities Act.

    Copies of these questions and background information can be reviewed at the meeting or obtained from the BBE at (608) 266-9760. Those interested in speaking at the meeting must notify the board in advance, and time will be limited to 10 minutes.

    Written comments will be accepted prior to and at the May 8 meeting. The BBE will consider all comments while making its annual revisions to the bar admission application, set for later this year.

    New Statutes Omit Change in Expert Witness Rule

    A 1995 amendment to Wisconsin Statutes section 804.01(2)(d), regarding discovery of expert witnesses, was inadvertently omitted from the 1995-96 statutes. Supreme Court Order 95-03 added language to the statute allowing a party to depose an opposing party's expert witness, whether or not that witness testifies at trial. This order makes the Wisconsin rule almost identical to the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(4).

    The State Bar advises members to make this change in their statute books. A notice of errata from Bruce Munson, Wisconsin Revisor of Statutes, explaining the omission with a copy of the complete, corrected version of the state statute, was published in the state's official newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal, the weekend of March 7. The amended statute now reads:

    "804.01(2)(d) Trial preparation: experts. Discovery of facts known and opinions held by experts, otherwise discoverable under par. (a) and acquired or developed in anticipation of litigation or for trial, may be obtained as follows:

    "1. A party may through written interrogatories require any other party to identify each person whom the other party expects to call as an expert witness at trial. A party may depose any person who has been identified as an expert whose opinions may be prevented at trial. Upon motion, the court may order further discovery by other means, subject to such restrictions as to scope and such provisions, pursuant to subd. 3. concerning fees and expenses as the court considers appropriate.

    "2. A party may, through written interrogatories or deposition, discover facts known or opinions held by an expert who has been retained or specially employed by another party in anticipation of litigation or preparation for trial and who is not expected to be called as a witness at trial only upon motion showing that exceptional circumstances exist under which it is impracticable for the party seeking discovery to obtain facts or opinions on the same subject by other means."


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