For decades the family law system in jurisdictions throughout the United States have struggled with how to protect children and families from the negative consequences of high conflict litigation and the dysfunction of handling family law disputes like other civil disputes. One of the most effective ways for parents to protect their children and families from the toxicity of high conflict litigation is to keep parents from choosing litigation to resolve their custody and parenting disputes before they ever step foot in court. In 2020 Israel’s new legal reforms designed to remove family conflicts out of their courts was enacted. The aim of this law is to help spouses and parents and their children to resolve a family conflict among themselves consensually and peacefully, and to reduce the need for conducting legal proceedings, in consideration of all aspects of the conflict and the best interests of each and every child. This presentation will explore the new law and consider whether the United States is ready to enact similar reforms that would require mandatory early dispute resolution for all family law matters.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to describe Family Law reforms enacted by Israel that insure focus on children’s needs and the effectiveness that Israel has seen since its enactment of the new law that requires Early Dispute Resolution of family disputes.
- Participants will be able to identify how Early Dispute Resolution processes and social services currently available in the United States can be delivered more effectively if we were to implement family law reforms like those enacted by Israel.
- Participants will be able to evaluate the pros and cons and challenges of implementing similar reforms throughout family law courts in the United States.