The New Jersey State Bar Association submitted comments to the Administrative Office of the Courts, specifically lauding the Judiciary for its recommendations consistent with proposals by the NJSBA to the Family Practice Committee and the Special Committee on the Non-Dissolution Docket. In addition to its comments on the Family Practice report and Non Dissolution rule recommendations, the NJSBA supported all of the recommendations of the AOC’s Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement (DICE) recommendations.
Report of the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement
The Committee made nine substantive recommendations consistent with its annual Action Plan for Ensuring Equal Justice. The Association supports all nine recommendations and offered specific recommendations regarding expansion of access to pro bono and low-cost quality representation and a special study group to identify issues of relevant concern in areas including access to housing and related community-based resources affected by geographical considerations. The recommendations are:
Pro-bono and low-cost quality representation: DICE recommends continuing to lead and support innovation in the expansion of access to pro bono and low-cost quality representation in partnership with legal system stakeholders and review its offering of educational seminars and videos designed to provide procedural information and related supports to self-represented litigants. The NJSBA suggested that efforts be made to provide information in different languages and in a manner that is accessible for people with hearing impairment.
Fines and fees: Identify ways to standardize and streamline fee waiver applications, as well as waivers for costs of transcripts for purposes of appeal, while also preserving judicial discretion through consideration of the unique circumstances of individual applicants.
Technology gap: Continue to evaluate the effects of the access to technology gap on self-represented court users and identify substantive steps that the Judiciary can take to bridge the gap. This may include a working group or other project team tasked with considering these issues.
Access to Justice in Rural Communities: Authorize a special study group to identify issues of relevant concern, such as access to housing and related community-based resources that are affected by geographical considerations to develop a shared set of proposed solutions. The NJSBA recommended some parameters around the working group to adhere to SMART principles when making recommendations for action – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This would ensure that targeted outcomes are achieved, said the NJSBA in its comments. Additionally the NJSBA recommends that the working group consist of people with diverse backgrounds and who come from different geographical areas, as well as include members of the public, public sector group representatives and public interest lawyers.
Mental health and well-being: Convene a Special Committee on Children and Trauma-Conscious Courts to identify the ways that trauma-conscious practices can be expanded across practice areas, court services, and court programs to reduce the effects of exposure to traumatic content on children during court proceedings and in court settings.
LGTBQ+: Publicly memorialize its general and practice-area specific inclusive practices that advance access and eliminate barriers to the courts for LGBTQ+ people. DICE additionally suggests advancing the principles set forth in Directive #7-22, the Judiciary Policy on Accessible and Inclusive Communications, to support operational consistency, advance procedural fairness through clear procedural standards, and promote efficiency across vicinages, practice divisions and case types.
Race equity: Expand the Judiciary’s intersectional approach to systemic reforms through data collection, policy reforms, and targeted interventions to ensure equitable treatment and protection for all individuals, including an examination of the challenges encountered by transgender people with the criminal justice system.
Attorney registration demographics: Explore the voluntary collection of other demographic data as part of the annual attorney registration process to better understand the demographic profile of the legal profession in New Jersey.
Community engagement: Identify and employ meaningful opportunities to leverage the use of technology to enhance and expand community engagement initiatives and public education efforts to foster public trust and confidence in courts to support people’s positive views of the quality of justice delivered by the New Jersey courts.
Family Practice Committee Report
The NJSBA applauded the recommendations in the Family Practice Committee Report, which mirrors recommendations made by the Association previously. The Association cautioned the removal of Family Part forms from the Appendix to the Court Rules, which could remove the opportunity to provide comments on those forms. The recommendations include:
R. 1:38-3 – Court Records Excluded from Public Access: All family court records should be excluded from public access because public access has a detrimental impact on litigants, particularly the children. The records include private and personal information relating to children and their parents. The NJSBA has long advocated for the shielding of such information from public access.
R. 1:40-2: Modes and Definitions of Complementary Dispute Resolution; and R. 1:40-4: Mediation – General Rules: Incorporate the collaborative law privilege into these court rules so that collaborative law communication made by a party or any nonparty participant is privileged, not subject to discovery and inadmissible in evidence.
R. 4:17-1: Service, Scope of Interrogatories; Proposed New Form of Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents: The NJSBA submitted proposed uniform interrogatories and document production requests to the AOC following the decision on Cardali v. Cardali, regarding post-judgment discovery in connection with a motion to terminate or suspend alimony based on cohabitation. Those proposed documents were reviewed by the committee, which recommended an amendment to R. 4:17-1 to fulfill the Supreme Court’s charge in Cardali to “propose amendments to the court rules governing such discovery and to develop uniform interrogatories to streamline the discovery process” in these cases.
R. 5:4-2 - Complaint; R. 5:7-4 – Orders Establishing Alimony and Child Support Payments: Amendments were recommended to conform to the Supreme Court’s May 7, 2024 Order relaxing parts of these rules and requires the filing of a Confidential Litigation Information Sheet in all Dissolution and Non Dissolution matters.
Removal of the Family Part Forms from the Appendix of the Court Rules and Proposed Conforming Rule Amendments: Remove certain forms from the Rules Appendix and have them promulgated by the Administrative Director of the Courts. Those forms include the Certification of Attorney Client; Certification by Self-Represented Litigant; Family Part Case Information Statement; and Final Judgment of Divorce. The NJSBA pointed out that the inclusion of these forms in the Appendix allows everyone, including self-represented litigants, to have easy and uniform access to them. “Further, these forms are critical components of Family Part matters, and the comment process currently afforded individuals before any changes are made is critical to ensuring any changes are thoroughly vetted and take all perspectives into account.”
A copy of NJSBA’s letter to the AOC may be found here.
Proposed Non-Dissolution Rule Amendments
The Association supported the rule amendments proposed by the AOC regarding the Family Part Non-Dissolution docket because they are consistent with the NJSBA’s prior advocacy urging the elimination of the differences that currently exist between matters filed on the FD and FM documents. Five amendments have been proposed as follows:
R. 5:4-3(b) would allow the non-filing party to file a responsive pleading and create a timeframe to file a responsive pleading;
R. 5:5-3 would require the disclosure of assets, liabilities, childcare costs, and health care expenses, and would further require that supplemental information to support these expenses and other income information be attached;
R. 5:4-4 would require the court to serve all non-dissolution documents filed by the initiating party on the non-filing party and serve any responding documents on the initiating party;
R. 5:6A and Appendix IX-A, paragraph 28 would require distribution of the child support guidelines worksheet with all child support orders or Uniform Summary Support Orders;
Proposed new R. 5:8-7 would require non-dissolution litigants to participate in the Non-Dissolution Education Program and a subsequent consent conference prior to their first hearing before a judge.
A copy of the NJSBA’s letter may be found here.