Enlightened Family Justice Institute
Transforming Family Courts
Healing Human Conflicts         Preserving Families

We believe family courts should facilitate
 the healing of human conflict.

Our current model of resolving family disputes in court is adversarial.  The adversarial process invites bad behaviors creating wounded feelings, distrust, and more intense conflict. 

Children are caught in the middle of and wounded by their caretakers' conflict.  The wounds suffered by the children may be invisible but will last for a lifetime.  Wounded children tend to pass their emotional wounds on to the next generation.

The Current Reality
Court trials are based upon a long tradition of adversarial litigation.  The adversarial tradition assumes that one person will "win" and the other person will "lose" a battle.  The reality is no one in the family is a "winner" and all members of the family are "losers" when there is a courtroom battle.
                         
It does not have to be this way! You --  the public taxpayer -- are the consumer of court services.  You can demand that the courts perform their judicial services in a way that minimizes harm and encourages the healing of family relationships.

How It Might Be

We believe that the courts and judges have the power under existing law to adopt non-adversarial proceedings. The county government can provide innovative services that support the court in helping families heal the wounds of their conflict.

We believe the local family courts and their judges would welcome public support for transforming family justice.