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Vol. 70, No. 4, April
1997
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." | 