(BPI #014)

Practice Areas:  

• Preparation of the petition and filing procedures

• Linkages with comprehensive victim advocacy and services

• Procedures for emergency hearings and orders

• Procedures for service of process for temporary orders

• Procedures for hearings on the final order

• Standardized civil protection order elements

• Mechanisms to monitor and enforce compliance with the order

• Enforcement of orders from other state and tribal jurisdictions

• Other:  Case management

Date of Implementation: November 1992

Overview: Dade County’s domestic violence court encompasses a comprehensive domestic violence plan that recognizes the cultural and ethnic diversity of Miami and treats domestic violence in the early stages before the conflict escalates to serious injury or death. The plan’s goal is  to reduce domestic violence by requiring offender accountability, meaningful intervention and punishment, and providing safety and support services to victims and their children. The court includes criminal misdemeanors involving domestic violence as well as petitions for civil protection orders.

Key Elements:

• “One-Stop Shop” intake facility.  Victims are directed to one of four intake locations in Miami.  They are given a packet of information (including a description of the process, the applicable law, contact and background information about the parties, a Financial Affidavit, and a service of process information sheet) to read and complete. A counselor interviews the petitioner and collects information necessary to complete the injunction paperwork. The counselor also explains the court process in a user-friendly manner, reviews safety planning, and makes language appropriate referrals for the victim and children to social service agencies in the community (e.g., shelter, public assistance, support groups/counseling programs, vocational training, and legal assistance). The Domestic Violence Unit also has procedures for after hours and emergency situations. 

• Automated intake of injunction cases.  The intake process is accomplished using a customized state-of-the-art network and client-server software application program.  The intake counselor enters case information as it is obtained, allowing forms to be printed and signed immediately.  The network also allows for all case information to be available to the Clerk’s Office for post-intake detailed statistical data and prompt modification of documents in accordance with legislative mandates. Future expansion will support an electronic judges’ signature system to eliminate the time required to deliver documents, obtain signatures, and return the documents to the intake office. 

• Case management or “Customer Service Department.”  The Court Unit is staffed with Court Coordinators who are attorneys.  Their primary function is to assist the Court in Permanent Injunction hearings by acting as a liaison between the Clerk, the Court, and the litigants, who are largely pro se.  They assist the Court by structuring visitation schedules, calculating child support, and making social service referrals to community agencies. 

• Intern program.  Local colleges and law schools provide social work interns to the Intake Unit and legal interns to the Court Unit.  These inters supplement and enhance the services rendered to the public by the staff of the Domestic Violence Division.   

• Intersystem coordination.  Court coordinators cross-reference case information between the Domestic Violence, Family, Criminal and Juvenile Divisions of the Court is performed to handle cases with a holistic approach, avoid conflict of court orders, and provide for the sharing of resources through linkages developed through the different Divisions.   

• Institutionalizing risk management practices.  Risk Assessment and communication is essential in terms of managing high risk cases involved in domestic violence proceedings.  Partnerships with criminal justice and law enforcement agencies help provide an expedited response to the handling of these cases, thereby reducing potential violence, and lethal violence in particular, from occurring. 

• Public education.  Domestic Violence Court staff provide an important function in terms of conducting training sessions and educational presentations throughout the county to community organizations and criminal justice agencies on domestic violence issues. 

• CourtCare.  Court Care Centers function as a safe and supervised drop-in child care center for children who come to court with a parent or caretaker in connection with family and/or domestic violence cases.  In Miami-Dade County, Court Care is staffed by experienced professions from the YWCA. 

• Pro Bono Guardian ad Litem project.  Establishing a partnership between the Court and local bar associations helps provide a specially trained pool of family lawyers to serve as pro bono guardians ad litem in injunction cases where minors seek an injunction against a parent or caretaker.  This effort may bolster the minimal resources which may be available to perform this important function. 

• Supervised visitation and monitored exchange services.  Services for monitored visitation exchange and supervised visitation for injunction cases is a critical element of a Domestic Violence Court when providing for the safety of the parties and children involved. 

• Coordination and implementation of procedures relating to surrender and return of firearms and ammunition, registry and enforcement of foreign orders of protection, and entry of break orders.  Coordinating and implementing procedures for surrender and return of firearms and ammunition in injunction cases as per state and federal law and in accordance with local police practices is an important component of the Domestic Violence Court.  Procedures for registry and enforcement of foreign orders of protection, as well as a procedure for the entry of break orders, are also key initiatives to coordinate locally. 

• Reengineering of the assessment process for batterers.  A system redesign in Miami-Dade County provided for the establishment of a centralized assessment agency to streamline the process for assessment and referral of offenders to batterers’ intervention programs.  In conjunction with this initiative, an enhanced, comprehensive assessment instrument was created, which was thereafter adopted as the statewide mode by the Florida Department of Corrections Office of Certification and Monitoring of Batterers’ Intervention Programs. 

• Differential treatment for domestic violence offenders.  The Domestic Violence Division has been working cooperatively on an interagency basis to develop a treatment program and intensive supervision protocols for domestic violence offenders referred from the Court based upon defined differential levels of risk.  This will allow for offender-specific treatment placement, as opposed to the current exclusive option of a twenty-six session program. 

• Dual diagnostic treatment services.  A specialized state-of-the-art dual diagnostic treatment program was developed from a federally funded 2-year project. The program converges the two divergent treatment philosophies associated with substance abuse and domestic violence. All providers offer a concurrent substance abuse group modeled after the grant’s treatment program. 

• Domestic violence fatality review.  A multidisciplinary team reviews adult and child domestic violence-related homicides and offers community prevention and intervention strategies based on the knowledge gained from the review process. 

• Safe Families Safe Pets.  The main mission of this initiative is the establishment of an emergency shelter “safehouse” program for companion animals of battered women seeking refuge at a local shelter, with the purpose of removing the responsibility of caring for a loved pet as an obstacle to leaving an abusive situation. 

• Interagency collaboration.  Implementation of Miami’s plan to address domestic violence has involved the mayor, county manager, governor, state and local representatives, chief  and division judges, the clerk’s office, the administrative office of the court, legal advocacy groups, victim advocacy groups, police and sheriff’s department, the department of corrections, pretrial services, the prosecutor’s office, the public defender’s office, the probation department, the department of parole, local treatment providers, public government agencies, and private non-profit agencies.

Replication: Many  jurisdictions statewide, nationally and internationally have visited the court to replicate various practices.

Evaluation: The Crime and Justice Research Institute studied the role of substance abuse and its treatment in domestic violence cases.  The 1996 report “The Role of Drug & Alcohol Abuse in Domestic Violence and it’s Treatment: Dade County’s Domestic Violence Court Experiment,” by Dr. John Goldkamp led to the provision of concurrent treatment for substance abuse and domestic violence.

Other Support:  Other support includes state and local funding for various aspects of the program, grant funding, and volunteer help. The BBC featured the Court in a documentary called Inside Story: Terrifying Love that was aired in England. Articles describing the Court have been published in the 1997 spring issue of Family Advocate and the 1999 spring issue of the Juvenile and Family Court Journal.  The Court also was included in the 1998 Family Violence: Emerging Programs for Battered Mothers & Their Children, compiled by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges with funding from the State Justice Institute.

Contact & Related Links: 

Lauren Lazarus, Esq.
Director
Domestic Violence Division
175 N.W. 1^st Avenue, #1502
Miami, FL 33128
(305) 349-5555
(305) 349-5559 Fax
llazarus@jud11.flcourts.org

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