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Now kids have their say in family court By Tomer Zarchin A dramatic change seems to have taken place in the status of children in law, as new regulations enacted in December are being applied in a pilot project in Family Court in Haifa and Jerusalem. "Family Court," the regulations state, "will give children the right to express their feelings, opinions and desires in the matter before the court...and will accord them the proper weight in its ruling, in keeping with the child's age and maturity." Advertisement During the two-year experiment, children age 6 to 18 are to take an active part in the judicial process in matters of custody and visitation. They do so either through direct meetings with the judge, or by making their opinions known to the court through a court-appointed case-worker. "In the past," says Judge Saviona Rotlevi, who headed the committee on implementation in law of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, "some judges heard from children and some preferred not to." The innovation here, Rotlevi says, is in the child's right to be heard. "There is a difference in seeing the child giving information to the court, as a person about whose fate the court is going to rule," she says. Anat Inbar, a social worker in charge of the unit providing assistance to Family Court, says the first stage will be a letter to the parents informing them a worker from the unit will contact them. The child is then invited to the unit and his or her rights are explained. "Usually we ask to speak to the child separately, to find out whether he or she wants to speak to the judge alone, or with a worker from the unit," Inbar says. "If the child does not want to meet the judge, he or she can give the worker the information to pass on to the judge." Inbar said some parents are concerned the process will impinge on their parental authority. So far, 72 children have come to the unit, 20 of whom agreed to meet with the judge hearing the case. "Most of the smaller children prefer to speak to the worker, and the older children prefer to speak with the judge," Inbar says. "Some children come with their own visitation plan they want to show the judge. Some don't want to get into conflict over it," she says. Inbar says some judges have more skills than others in addressing children. "Our judges usually prefer a social worker be present at the meeting, mainly because they don't have enough tools to deal with the child, especially the little ones." Inbar says Family Court judges have had special training, and they are clearly making efforts to reach the children. "One judge heard before the meeting that the child was interested in soccer, and he made sure he knew what was happening in the sports news so it would be easier to talk to him." The judges meet the children in their chambers, without their robe, and usually try to keep the atmosphere informal, Inbar says. Rotlevi notes that a court recorder documents the meeting in the judge's chambers. Both this record, or the unit worker's testimony if the child has chosen not to meet with the judge, are kept in the court safe, in case an appeal is lodged after the ruling. The judge always tells the child that he or she will hear the child out, but that the final decision rests with the judge. There are obstacles to be dealt with in the new system. As one attorney interning in family law said yesterday, "you can't file an appeal on a judge's decision on custody when you don't know what weight the meeting with the child had in the ruling, and we don't know what the child told the judge. How does the program deal with children who have been incited by one parent against the other?" Rotlevi says opposition to the project comes from those "in thrall" to the adversarial concept, which is not necessarily suitable to Family Court or to children. "Some think they should be able to interview the child to find out what he or she intended in the meeting with the judge. Many of these people are afraid of change." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah scare Lebanese group's influence has dramatically increased in the West Bank. Literary boycott Peres calls Muslim countries' shunning of Paris Book Fair 'most ridiculous.'

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