Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse Program Facilitating Co-Parenting while Order of Protection is in Place Becomes Model for States Across U.S.

A Chicago Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse program that seeks to help parents in domestic violence situations navigate child issues and co-parenting issues while domestic violence orders of protection are in place has become a model for the rest of the state and the country. According to local news reports, the program first started in Chicago in 2013, when Cook County was one of four jurisdictions that was picked to participate in a program that aimed to address co-parenting while domestic violence protection orders are in place, coined the Family Court Enhancement Project. The project enabled Cook County to, among other things, conduct training and establish the job of a “child relief expediter” at the domestic violence court. The role of the child support expediter is to “help parents develop a safe, well-supervised co-parenting plan to be incorporated into their order of protection.

The process at the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse begins with a screening of a case by a judge. Cases in which a child was severely injured, or there are weapons, such as guns, involved, will not be eligible for developing the co-parenting plan. If the case is eligible for the program, the child support relief expediter meets with each parent separately to determine whether there is a safe path to co-parenting in light of the history of domestic violence, and if there is a way to facilitate supervised visits. If the parties are able to hash out a co-parenting plan, those “child relief remedies” are then incorporated into the existing domestic violence order of protection. Although the program started with just 24 cases assigned to the Cook County child relief expediter, a total of 2,333 have been assigned since it began.

Of the program, Judge Judith Rice said, “In the past, there was a view that if someone was in the home causing harm [and] there’s an order of protection, they just didn’t get to see their kids anymore…And what we saw is something that we call magical thinking, to think that these parties are not going to see their kids, are not going to want to be involved and not want to be in their life.” She added that there was a “disconnect” in that parents were “not understanding that if you could work out some sort of plan for how the other parent would be in that child’s life, that they could still have their [protective] order.”

Legal Help with Your Domestic Violence Order of Protection in Chicago – Chicago Domestic Violence Lawyer

Domestic violence issues are never easy, especially when children are involved. If you are seeking legal help with your domestic violence case or are interested in obtaining a domestic violence order of protection, do not hesitate to speak to an experienced Chicago domestic violence lawyer about your case. The experienced Chicago domestic violence lawyers at the law firm Arnoux Sharma Standeford, LLC are here to help. Contact Arnoux Sharma Standeford, LLC and speak to a lawyer about your case now.

Source:

wbez.org/crime/2024/10/16/kids-domestic-violence-cases-support-solace-cook-county-court