Our local Vanderburgh Country Court rules have long allowed for any judge rotating though family court to retain jurisdiction of a particular case. This may have been formalized in the last revision to the local rules but it is certainly not a change.
The parent education workshop has been in place for more than ten years with the original copyright in 1990 and having been revised a few times since then by the publisher but not by my opponent. The class has needed to be completely revamped for years & I have several ideas to be included, but I would invite participation from community stakeholders when redoing the curriculum.
Vanderburgh County was included as one of 23 counties in a pilot project first initiated by the Supreme Court around 2000. After Vanderburgh County became a participant, Vanderburgh County as far as you can tell from reviewing the Supreme Court website, was the only county that did not make any changes in the procedures of how divorce cases were handled. There was a project started to help low income families through the divorce process which was started by a grant prepared by one or more local attorneys and one or two local judges participated in the preparation. My opponent’s name was placed on the document simply because she as supervisor of family court but she had no active participation in the conception of the project, the preparing of the grant application or in the implementation of the project. And, yes, just this year the judges decided to do more mediation in family court which has always been an option.
The Parenting Time Center is an excellent local resource created and started by a local attorney. If she has assisted with grants I’m glad to know that she is doing something to help.
The Court system is being slightly restructured effective on September 1, 2012 but my opponent has been against the idea of having any of the six judges that currently rotate serve or sit in any divisions full time. She was the sole dissenting vote against moving forward and since it is happening regardless of her opposition, she has wisely decided now to take credit for the project. However, her opposition was absolute against the allowing judges to sit in any divisions full time.
I am running against the sitting judge who I do not believe has served the citizens and particularly the children of Vanderburgh Community very well. I do not know my opponent on any personal basis and will not comment about her personally. Her record as Judge is fair for me to examine, comment on, and challenge. The majority of voters in Vanderburgh County know very little about our local judicial system, what judges do or don’t do or how many hours different judges work. The public deserves to have factual information on sitting judges.
