Over the past five months, the Connecticut Judicial Branch has altered the way our family court system operates. The results have been disastrous. Despite the bar’s long history of collaboration with the bench, the organized bar’s input was not sought, nor was any input sought from the legal services consortium. As is predictable, when you build a system without any input from the users, often you create more problems than you solve. This is exactly what has occurred here.

Historically, under the short calendar approach to motions, all filed motions were scheduled for hearing within a few short weeks. While the system had its problems it at least provided an opportunity for a hearing before a judge. Importantly as well, since the parties knew a court hearing was coming, it provided incentive for settlement.