Henry County - Pay Atttention About Friday Hearings

I am not so sure that I like the idea of a contempt hearing where there is no record that can be easily used for an appeal, but I am also trying to think of where I have had a contempt case set for only 15 minutes. I doubt that may pro se parties would know the problem created by this sort of rule.

(E) FRIDAY HEARINGS. Hearings scheduled in provisional matters, IV-D Child Support Matters, Contempt Citation and Visitation matters set on Fridays are not recorded and are set for a maximum of 15 minutes with only the parties as witnesses. If a party desires to have the matter recorded, has additional witnesses or believes the matter will take longer than 15 minutes then a continuance should be requested and the matter set on a day other than Friday.

As an aside, it looks like Henry County has picked up an idea from Grant Count: family law Fridays.

This ends the review of the Henry County Family Law Rules.

Henry County: Who Prepares the Decree of Dissolution

I suspect many will find themselves either puzzled or amused by this local rule. One might think the judges over in New Castle do not have much to do, but let me say this rule is neither a waste of time nor as silly as it might appear:

(D) DECREE PREPARED SUBSEQUENT TO HEARING. A decree prepared following a hearing at the direction of the court shall be prepared by Counsel for the Petitioner and submitted to counsel for the Respondent who shall both sign the Decree “Approved as to Form.”

I might even say this local rule epitomizes a local rule: somewhat of a detail that the Indiana Supreme Court would leave out of the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure but instead leaves to local discretion,

What is so good about this Rule? I see two good things, but it will take some words to explain its utility.

The first and most simplest thing giving the Rule utility is that it means Respondent's lawyer gets to make sure that Petitioner's lawyer neither omitted nor added anything to the court's decision. More often than not, the trial judge makes an oral decision from the bench and the lawyers are left to writing down what the judge says. I would think everyone can see where errors can creep into a Decree with that sort of situation. (These problems are less so now that we have everything recorded and the recording are pretty easy to access).

My second reason for liking this Rule requires me to report on a case from last Fall from Anderson. It was an enforcement hearing and opposing counsel was an older local attorney. A deed went unprepared, the Decree was vague on who was to prepare, and opposing counsel argued that it was customary that my side was to prepare the deed. After twenty-one years of practicing in Madison County, this was the first time that I had ever heard of this custom. The judge agreed with me. With a similar rule here as this Henry County Rule, there would have been no delay in preparing the document, no additional attorney fees, no additional hearing due to an ambiguity in who was to prepare a document.

It does leave me to speculate about what happens when neither side has a lawyer.

Henry County Divorces and Child Support Worksheets

The requirement in (C) about the support docket fee surprises me. Yet that is something that ought to be in all Decrees of Dissolution. The Indiana Code requires it. I think the requirement about payment for the uninsured medicals in the Decree seems duplicative of the quoted part of (A). So far as I can recall, the Child Support Worksheets show the uninsured medical expenses.

LR33-FL00-1 FAMILY COURT RULES
(A) CHILD SUPPORT WORKSHEET AND CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE. ....The parties must also file a child support worksheet to accompany their Decree of Dissolution of Marriage....

( C ) DECREE OF DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE INVOLVING MINOR CHILDREN. The written decree must state that the non-custodial parent is responsible for the annual child support docket
fee. Two original copies of the decree must be tendered along with sufficient copies for all counsel and parties if unrepresented. The decree must also provide for the payment of uninsured medical expenses pursuant to the child support rules. A child support worksheet must be attached to all decrees.

Add Henry County to the list of counties with a divorce seminar

Yet another local rule post, this time from Henry County.

LR33-FL00-1 FAMILY COURT RULES
(A) CHILD SUPPORT WORKSHEET AND CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE. All divorcing parents with children must attend the required “Loving Your Children Through the Divorce” program and provide the court with the original certificate of attendance at the commencement of their final hearing or accompanying their Waiver of Final Hearing. .... The Court may, in its discretion, continue the Final Hearing or withhold entering the Final Decree for failure to attend the required class.

I tried to find out what I could find online about this seminar but the Henry County website gave me nothing.

For my other posts on counties requiring parents attend a seminar, see these posts: Children Cope with Seminars and Madison County Local Rules: LR48-AR00-18 Children in the Middle Seminars

Henry County Local Rules: Guardian ad Litem

Having written before about guardians ad litem (here and here and here), I am interested to see how often GAL's actually get used in Henry Couty.

(F) GUARDIAN AD LITEMS. The Courts shall utilize the Henry County Guardian Ad Litem/CASA office for the appointment of a Guardian Ad Litem. A separate order will be issued by the court and the CASA appointed by the Court should file a written report with the court, with a copy to all counsel and parties of record, within 2 days of any scheduled hearing. The Guardian Ad Litem should be available for hearing.

It does not mention any penalty for failing to get the report to the court and/or counsel and/or parties before the hearing. I got to admit that 2 days is short time to prepare any rebuttal to GAL's report.