RHB/3/17
Sponsored by Jack Smith, Damon Jones of Evangelical Christian School
This legislation was filed in the Human Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act will be defined as follows: |
| 4 | One Family, One Judge: A judicial procedure in which one judge handles all of the hearings of all |
| 5 | members of a family, in related cases, through all court processes, to the extent possible. This |
| 6 | allows the judge to have a full perspective when handling integrated family matters. The District of |
| 7 | Columbia, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, |
| 8 | New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, and Wisconsin are among the most |
| 9 | notable jurisdictions for implementing this method. |
| 10 | Report Card: An annual system in which performance is measured by which the judge can ensure |
| 11 | that the justice system has measurable goals, key principles, and objectives that serves as |
| 12 | standards to hold the systems of the juvenile, family, criminal, and civil court stakeholders |
| 13 | accountable. The results are made available to stakeholders and those intimately involved. |
| 14 | Integrated Domestic Violence Court System: An expansion of domestic violence courts that |
| 15 | includes not only felony and misdemeanor domestic violence cases but also “related concurrent |
| 16 | Family Court and matrimonial cases.” IDV Courts combine civil, criminal, and matrimonial courts |
| 17 | into one court that ensures domestic violence is handled through both a civil and criminal lens. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Section 2: This act shall restructure the court process to adopt the “One Family, One Judge” and |
| 20 | Integrated Domestic Violence Court System models in both Juvenile and Family Court and |
| 21 | Domestic Violence courts in the state of Tennessee. This will streamline the court procedures that |
| 22 | family members and victims of abuse must undergo and improve overall communication, provide |
| 23 | integrated court services, increase offender accountability, maintain an individual’s safety and |
| 24 | rights, expedite court processes, and better ensure justice through a judge that can see the full |
| 25 | picture. Individual performance and accountability will be ensured through an annual "Report |
| 26 | Card" system. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Section 3: This act will promote on-going training for judges, allied-system professionals, court |
| 29 | staff, and service providers and create an infrastructure of individuals equipped to handle a wide- |
| 30 | array of presenting issues that affect children, youth, and families. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Section 4: This act will not allocate additional cases to judges, but rather restructure the overall |
| 33 | number of cases a judge oversees. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Section 5: In the instance that one judge cannot be assigned to all cases involving a family, courts |
| 36 | should develop protocols for communication and coordination to ensure that case plans and |
| 37 | dispositions are integrated, reasonable, and achievable. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Section 6: Courts should emphasize the importance of offender accountability and offer the |
| 40 | opportunity for rehabilitation to maintain the structural integrity of each family. The safety of |
| 41 | children and victims should be the court’s utmost priority in all related cases. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Section 7: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | Section 8: This act shall take effect June 1st, 2026. |
| 46 |