FAMILY DIVISION
MORE INFORMATION
Visit the Family Division's page on the Judicial Branch website
Mission: To provide a system of justice that is responsive to the needs of families and the support of their children.
The Family Division promotes an accessible and timely court process for families in transition, emphasizing mediation and case management while increasing support services in the community. The Family Division is an administrative unit within the Judicial Branch, established to "work with the District Courts to monitor" specific Court dockets impacting Maine’s children and families, including child protection, family/divorce, protection from abuse, and juvenile cases.
The goals of the Family Division are:
- To promote
a timely resolution of family cases.
- To address promptly the establishment,
modification and enforcement of child support orders and
other orders in family proceedings.
- To provide effective case management
for family cases involving children.
- To facilitate parenting
arrangements in the best interest of children at an early
stage in the proceedings.
- To promote education for the parties about
parenting issues and to inform litigants about community
services available to help them address family problems.
- To provide court
users with a better understanding of court processes.
- To identify
domestic relations cases in which there is domestic abuse
or a power imbalance in order to protect children and
adults and to ensure a fair resolution of the case.
- To promote civility in
divorce and other family law proceedings.
- To minimize the harm
to children caused by family law cases.
- To make appropriate referrals to alternative dispute resolution services.
The Family Division won the 2008 Special Service Award for their work in developing and producing the Moving Mountains: A Summit on Childhood Development, Parental Participation and Permanency Success seminar. The employees of the Family Division developed and produced this two-day conference designed to improve the safety, permanency, and well-being of children in the State's child welfare system.