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."
Wisconsin
Lawyer
