Family Law Section
Settlement Conference Calendar
Click here to view the Family Law Settlement Conference and Attorney Mediation Volunteer Calendar. Please submit all sign-up requests to the Temporary Judge and Attorney Mediator Subcomittee (TJAM) at pcbaflstjam@gmail.com.
Join the Family Law Section
In order to join a section, you must be a current PCBA member. If you are already a PCBA member and you want to join the Family Law Section and have already renewed your PCBA membership, select Contact Us to arrange payment and membership to the Family Law section. If you are not yet a member and want to join and be a part of this section, be sure to check the box for the additional section dues to be added to your PCBA membership.
Mission Statement
The Family Law Section is Committed to:
- Educating section members.
- Encouraging ethical conduct.
- Developing and improving standards of practice.
- Working with judicial officers and court staff to improve the administration of justice.
- Providing a forum through which family law practitioners may cooperate with, encourage, and assist each other in the resolution of problems and practice issues.
Family Law Temporary Judges Needed
If you are a family law attorney with at least 10 years’ experience, the court needs your help. Please consider volunteering as a Temporary (Pro Tem) Judge for the Friday morning Mandatory Settlement Conference calendar. Mandatory Settlement Conferences are held on Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and beginning December 10, 2018, will be held in Department 43.
To become a temporary judge, you will need to complete an application, an in-person bench demeanor class, an online ethics class, and online substantive training. We are inquiring with the Court to schedule a Bench Demeanor Training session for this year. Stay tuned.
If you are interested in serving as a temporary judge or want more information, please contact Denise Dirks at dirkslaw@dirkslaw.com or Patricia Clark at patricia@clarkfamlaw.com.
Placer County Family Law Executive Committee 2024
Chair: Laura Strasser
Vice Chair: Christy Carlisle
Secretary: Michelle Albright
Member-at-Large: Emily Seki
Member-at-Large: James Phillip Anderson
Member-at-Large: Tom Marrs
Member-at-Large: Michael Mendonsa
Past Chair: Patricial Clark
Excerpt from the February 2019 Newsletter
This article has been a long time coming. Last August 2018, the Family Law Section of the Placer County Bar Association (PFLS) turned ten years old. The PFLS has been instrumental in helping the Section members and the family law community. Each year, the PFLS recognizes at least one individual who has given extra time and attention to our family law community. This year, the award was given to Honorable Eugene Gini, for his contribution.
The PFLS is governed by its Charter. The governing committee is called Placer Family Law Executive Committee or PFLEC for short. PFLEC has several sub-committees that help to fulfill different functions to assist the PFLEC. There is the Child Custody sub-committee. This sub-committee consists of lawyers and mental health professionals who volunteer to sit on the sub-committee and discuss topics that impact children whose parents are litigants in a family law case. This sub-committee has been the planner for the three part series luncheons. It also has had input into the former STEP program, the mediation processes for custody and visitation, and is currently working on trying to get a minor’s counsel program in place.
Another sub-committee is the Temporary Judge Attorney Mediator (non-custody) or TJAM sub-committee. This sub-committee helps to train the attorney volunteers and staff the temporary judge and observing/assisting attorneys for the Mandatory Settlement Conferences on Fridays. The court has just announced a new Settlement Office whereby additional attorneys will be trained to do mediation/settlement conferences for family law matters. The advantage to this settlement conference is that a trial does not need to be set to utilize the mediation/settlement office. In cases where there is at least one self-represented party, Diane Bras will act as the Settlement Officer. In cases where there are two attorneys involved in the case, trained temporary judges or mediators will act as the settlement officer. The issues can be property division, support, child custody and visitation after mediation, child support, or all of these. It will give the litigants the opportunity to get settlement early in the case without the need to set a trial date.
The Local Rules sub-committee reviews the proposed rules changes and then makes resolutions to the PFLEC to present any input to the Bench. This sub-committee has less of a time commitment, except around the times of the rule changes which occur before December and June of each year.
The last sub-committee is the Continuing Legal Education sub-committee. The chair of this sub-committee is the Vice Chair of PFLEC. It is in charge of the CLE for the Section. The goal is to have three CLE’s each year to include the Spring CLE event put on by the Placer County Bar Association.
The PFLS needs volunteers for the sub-committees, the chairs of the sub-committees, temporary judges, Observing/Assisting attorneys, and Settlement Officers. If you are interested, please contact Patricia Clark, PFLEC chair at Patricia@Clarkfamilylaw.com or 916-472-6232 or the TJAM chair at pcbafls@gmail.com. If you are interested in trainings, please contact Denise Dirks—Past Chair and TJAM co-chair at dirkslaw@dirkslaw.com.