The mission at Family Court Awareness Month is to raise awareness and shine a spotlight on one of the most important branches of our judicial system; the family court system.

The very system that was established to govern family law cases and make decisions that are “in the best interest” of children, has some undeniable shortcomings that warrant conversations, solutions and ultimately, change.

Our mission is fueled by the desire for a family court system that is trauma-informed and educated on domestic violence, coercive control and post separation abuse. To truly act in the best interest of children, our family court system needs to incorporate empirical data and research into their decisions and rulings.

Such research includes:

• Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations (Joan S. Meier, George Washington University Law School)
• The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study (Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente)
• Child Custody Evaluators’ Beliefs About Domestic Abuse Allegations: Their Relationship to Evaluator Demographics, Background, Domestic Violence Knowledge and Custody Visitation Recommendations (Daniel G. Saunders, Ph.D. U.S.)
• Confronting the Challenges of the High-Conflict Personality in Family Court (Esther Rosenfeld and Michelle Oberman, Santa Clara University)