Family Law Facilitator Defined
The Family Law Facilitator is a court employee who assists self-represented litigants without representing either party. The Family Law Facilitator, like the Family Law Assistance Center (see below), is available to assist lawyers and people in the public with family law matters. The Family Law Facilitator can provide clerical assistance, procedural and informational assistance, coordinate programs, prepare forms, fill out forms, explain forms, help complete and file forms for support, custody and visitation, and provide conflict resolution to name a few things. The Family Law Facilitator can also act as an expert witness for Family Court Services and perform Divorce Without Court functions.
The Family Law Facilitator is available to all persons , regardless of status, in all stages of family law litigation. The Family Law Facilitator does not represent either party but can inform parties of local rules for filing actions, there are case management conferences, or there are closure conferences.
The Family Law Facilitator can help a party understand the following rules and procedures: A Family Law Facilitator’s duty is to help the parties resolve their family law case without a lawyer. A Family Law Facilitator strives to provide direct services to persons who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. If a party does not meet the criteria, they are referred to the Court’s self-help services at the Family Law Assistance Center (FLAC).
Shasta County’s Family Law Facilitator Services
The Family Law Facilitator serves as a valuable resource for individuals navigating the family law process in Shasta County. They offer a wide range of services that cater to both parties who have lawyers and those who do not. For those representing themselves, the Family Law Facilitator plays a particularly crucial role in streamlining the legal process.
One of the primary services offered is assistance with paperwork for a variety of family law matters. This includes helping with child custody and visitation, child and spousal support, property division, and the establishment of paternity. While the Family Law Facilitator can assist in completing the necessary forms, they have restrictions on their ability to provide comprehensive legal advice. Therefore, it is recommended that individuals seek assistance from an attorney if they have specific legal questions or if their case is particularly complicated.
Those involved in family law matters can also benefit from the Family Law Facilitator’s guidance on arriving at agreements with the other party. Utilizing their services can help smooth out the legal process and reduce tension between the parties. It is also important to note that the Family Law Facilitator is not a mediator. While they can assist in negotiations, they do not fulfill the role of neutral mediator by meeting with both parties simultaneously to reach an agreement.
The Family Law Facilitator can help those with limited means in filling out the necessary forms for a fee waiver, which may allow them to file their case without having to pay the court fees. Additionally, they are available to provide information about the court process and venue. While the Family Law Facilitator does not make any legal decisions, individuals can expect them to stay informed about the legal proceedings of their case. If parties in a case are in disagreement, the Family Law Facilitator can help outline the issues for the court’s consideration.
The Family Law Facilitator’s office is open Mondays through Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to noon.
The People Who Can Benefit from a Family Law Facilitator
The Family Law Facilitator is available to assist and give general information on the process to those who believe that they meet the criteria. These include persons who are acting as a party in a legal action initiated by another party (for example a spouse, parent, relative, or creditor), or a person who is an intended party (like a creditor, potential spouse, etc.).
Some specific examples of those likely to qualify for assistance from the Family Law Facilitator include:
Involuntary parties such as creditors, non-married domestic partners, suitors for a hand in marriage, or substitutes for a deceased respondent
Wives and husbands seeking dissolution of their marriage
Wives and husbands of military members who are seeking dissolution of their marriage
Wives and husbands who approach as a result of a domestic violence situation
Parents establishing joint or exclusive custody
Guardians ad litem (GAL) who have been appointed by court order
Alleged fathers participating in paternity disputes
Parents seeking support orders
Persons seeking spousal support
Creditors seeking administration of a decedent’s estate
Obviously, this is only a small sampling of those eligible for family law facilitator services. The simplest way to see if a person qualifies for service is to visit the family law facilitator’s office and present them with the facts of their case.
How to Access the Family Law Facilitator in Shasta County
Residents of Shasta County can utilize the services provided by the Family Law Facilitator located at the Family Law Courthouse in Redding. Its primary purpose is to provide self-help services to individuals who do not have an attorney, but the Facilitator does not provide any legal advice. Any party may contact the Family Law Facilitator, regardless of whether they have filed an action in Shasta County. The office is located on the second floor of the Shasta County Superior Courthouse at 1630 Yuba Street, Room 220, Redding, California, 96001 . The Family Law Facilitator provides a variety of family law services including document review, referrals and legal information regarding the following matters:
The Family Law Facilitator assists self-represented family law litigants with filling out forms, but they do not provide legal advice. Therefore, if you or your spouse intends on filing for a dissolution or separation in Shasta County, you should contact the Family Law Facilitator prior to filing your documents. If you require further assistance in completing the documentation needed to begin your proceedings, you may wish to consider retaining an experienced family law attorney to assist you with the preparation and filing.
Advantages of the Family Law Facilitator
There are numerous advantages to obtaining help from a Family Law Facilitator in Shasta County, including cost savings and improved legal knowledge. You will likely have to pay for a private attorney every time you have questions about documents, court processes, and procedures. Not to mention a private attorney likely will not write up more than 3 or 4 documents per hour.
A Family Law Facilitator in Shasta County is only $20/hour. An attorney typically charges between $250-$500/hour. After I show you how long a private attorney will take to do your legal forms it will be clear that the Family Law Facilitator is a great option.
Let’s assume you have a divorce with children and you need to obtain a temporary custody order, set visitation, and child support. (this will be the same for a legal separation). With present day online forms such as LegalZoom and RocketLawyer you would simply complete a Questionnaire online and the service would fill out the paperwork for you. You get the forms but you still need to file the forms at court, pay filing fees, make copies, serve the other party, respond to motion(s)/objection(s), and appear in front of the judge. These services are usually between $100 and $400 depending on the number of forms you need. Offsetting this one time cost are the additional attorneys’ fees for all of the court appearances.
With a private attorney if you harbor any questions about the forms nor can you provide the attorney with your ideas and concerns you will have to meet with/call the attorney. In fact all attorneys will insist on this. For a single, really easy case the private attorney will take 4-6 hours just to draft the necessary forms. For normal cases it is not unusual to do around 10-15 hours of attorney work. In addition to work on your case you will no doubt have time spent with other clients and administrative duties (this includes phone calls to opposing counsel and court personnel, scheduling, paying bills, marketing, etc.). To summarize, the Family Law Facilitator saves you a lot of money because they charge $20/hour and they only focus on your case. Most importantly you get the chance to ask questions to a Family Law Facilitator and get a general understanding of all your questions.
It can’t be stressed enough that a Family Law Facilitator can save you money because they will help you avoid litigation. A Family Law Facilitator will never make any order. However, when you start negotiating with the other party in the presence of a Family Law Facilitator usually each side can understand what the judge will do if they were to have to decide the case. If a party doesn’t budge then the Family Law Facilitator can assist that party in understanding the possibility of going to trial, how to present their case before the judge and some of the various arguments they can use. Of course this involves additional attorney fees.
Disadvantages of a Family Law Facilitator
Family law facilitators are not a substitute for a family law attorney. A facilitator cannot give you legal advice. A faciliteur can assist you with child support calculations.
If you are trying to negotiate a child custody arrangement, facilitation is not for you. The District Attorney is the attorney for the children and would also be at mediation. Additionally, if you need to prove what you and the other parent agreed to for modifying a prior order, handling this without a family law attorney may backfire for a couple of reasons. First , if you are trying to enforce a prior order (prove what is in a previous judgment) then you are going to want to get it done as soon as possible. A family law attorney can work to try to get things enforced quickly. A family law attorney can help you figure out how to work with the District Attorney’s office.
The second reason to retain a family law attorney is that no agreement is doted until a judgment is entered by a judicial officer. A faciliteur can not give you advise on whether or not to enter into an agreement without having a family law attorney explain how the agreement could be enforced or why it may not be a good idea to enter into it. An example is if you and the other party agree to modify parenting time for one party every six months, but do not specify exactly how that will then occur, the agreement may not match what actually occurs. This may require a court hearing to get the order put back in place. A family law attorney can also point out risks in a settlement. An example is if you and the other party agree to take less than the guideline child support, a family law attorney may caution you that once the children are older and more independent, the other party may start to argue that the support should be re-calculated.