Page 29 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2023

FEATURE | FAMILY COURT’S EVOLUTION
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sioner was different than my role as a nonprofit CEO, different than my role as a lawyer trying PFA cases every week, different than my role as a judge. I never enjoyed the luxury of time to contemplate the greater themes woven through 30-plus years of judicial, advocacy and practical experience. But I will share what I hold to be some of the significant developments in the responses of the conscientious people who staff the Family Court to the tragedy of domestic violence.
The PFA Statute and What Came After
The PFA statute, effective January 16, 1994,3 and the process implement- ed by the Family Court to address these cases, were giant steps. There was no useful civil law mechanism to deal with domestic violence until the PFA statute. People facing domestic violence had only law enforcement as a resource, and that resource was often unavailing.
Vincent Poppiti, then the Chief Judge of the Family Court, was in- strumental in the development of the statute. He and his team conceived the initial case-processing structure for PFA petitions and organized the hearing process. The volume of cases has been staggering from the beginning.
Since the statute’s implementa- tion, thousands of sur vivors have been helped. The commitment to sur vivors demonstrated by CLASI, Delaware Volunteer Legal Services (DVLS) and the legal clinic at the Widener University Delaware Law School to representing petitioners has meant thousands of people are provided meaningful access to the PFA order and the broad range of protections it provides.4 The contri- butions of the nonprofit agencies, including CHILD, Inc. and People’s
Place II, which run the Family Visita- tion Centers and the treatment pro- grams for perpetrators and sur vivors, have made progress for both parties possible.
The Family Court Commissioners handle most of this high-volume, fast- moving docket. The Family Court Commissioner position was created by the General Assembly in 1990, effective 1991. These judicial offi- cers have developed expertise in the legal and practical issues elemental to the applications and implications of the statute. Not only do they get training “on the bench,” but they are schooled by national experts on every aspect of the domestic violence practice.
In recent years, and in response to advocacy from many internal and external stakeholders, Family Court Judges have sought expert training in the legal, psychological, practical and emotional issues related to domestic violence. A judge has the option to consolidate a PFA petition when that judge is assigned a custody case be- tween the same parties. This practice allows the judge a more complete
understanding of the family dynam- ics that brought the family to the Court’s attention.
Family Court is a critical player in the efforts of people of good will to end domestic violence. I am hon- ored to have so many colleagues who dedicate their time, attention, exper- tise and authority to allowing families to be free from the violence that has marked our society for our whole his- tory. May we keep learning and keep responding.
NOTES
1. My views expressed here represent the thinking of exactly no one but me. This will come as a surprise to exactly no one who knows me.
2. VAWA is comprehensive federal legis- lation that provided the means to change the legal, law enforcement and social ser- vice culture around domestic violence. It was spearheaded by President Biden when he represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate.
3. Approved unanimously by both houses of the General Assembly on June 30, 1993, and signed by the Governor July 16, 1993.
4. Delaware’s third legal services agency, The Legal Services Corporation of Dela- ware, also helps survivors in many ways, but leaves the Family Court work to CLA- SI, DVLS and the clinic.
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