In 1991, the Commonwealth of Kentucky launched a Family Court pilot program.
Both innovative and ambitious in scale, the court was created to focus solely on the needs of families and children. It created continuity by allowing one judge to hear all of a family’s legal problems and issues.
The Family Court model quickly expanded from Jefferson County to suburban and rural areas across the commonwealth. The model proved so effective that efforts began to make it part of the Kentucky Constitution. In 2002, Kentucky voters resoundingly passed the constitutional amendment in all 120 counties with more than 75% of the vote.
Today, the one family, one judge, one court approach serves 3.2 million citizens in 71 Kentucky counties. It is looked upon as a national model.
While Daviess County is one of the largest counties in the state by population (7th out of 120), it wasn’t until 2016 that a Daviess County Family Court Judgeship was created after our community came together to make it as one of our top community priorities. While most involved understood that two judges would be necessary because of the caseload, the prevailing belief was that it was imperative to get our foot in the door, and that doing so would well serve our families who would go from potentially up to seven different officers of the court to one.
As time went on and the caseload continued to increase, Chief Justice Minton approved a second courtroom and the Daviess County Fiscal Court began renovations. Still only having one formal judgeship legislatively approved, Hancock County’s District Judge John McCarty served as our second judge. This was not meant to be a permanent solution.
House Bill 327 filed by Representative DJ Johnson this session will ensure that Greater Owensboro maintains a second Family Court Judge and that it will become a permanent seat. If the bill does not pass, our community will lose the second seat and will revert back to one Family Court Judge. This will be a detriment to children and families across our community, and it will also create an additional burden for employed family members and their employers because of extended leave time.
On Friday of last week, the bill was passed unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee and is on its way to the House floor, where we are fortunate to have Daviess County’s Suzanne Miles as the Majority Caucus Chair.
Family Court is involved in the most intimate and complex aspects of human nature. It is an aspect of our courts that impacts our community mem bers at their most vulnerable. Having local and state officials and members of the local judiciary who understand this and who do their part should make us all proud. Owensboro moves forward when we all pull together.
Messenger-Inquirer