VERMONT JUDICIAL BRANCH

PURPOSE:

This position involves professional, administrative, problem solving and customer service work in Family Court. This person will assist litigants to understand the judicial process and complete court documents, and will assist the judge and magistrate by ensuring cases and litigants are prepared for hearing. A major part of this person= s work will be to help litigants identify issues to be resolved, and facilitate the discussion and resolution of issues presented. This position is supervised by the Family Court Manager with ongoing direction provided by the judge and magistrate of the Family Court.

•  Conducts settlement or status conferences on child support or child contact matters pending before the magistrate to facilitate settlement in cases where there is substantial agreement or to narrow the issues for hearing where there is not.

•  Ensures that all persons involved in child support or child contact actions understand the court process, their rights under the law and all documents that they are asked to file or agree to.

•  Ensures that all financial information is gathered, organized and exchanged prior to the hearing so that the time spent before the magistrate in the event of hearing is minimized.

•  Assists litigants to reach agreement on parental rights and responsibilities and parent child contact.

•  Processes cases in one or more areas of the court's jurisdiction such as divorce, domestic abuse, juvenile, UIFSA, protective services, or mental health.

•  Schedules cases, filing court documents, keeping records of court proceedings, accepting and recording fines and fees, compiling statistics, and performing related duties as necessary.

•  Creates discovery schedules to assist the parties in organizing and exchanging information before hearings, identifying discovery issues and encouraging the parties to agree on evidentiary issues.

•  Maintains an understanding and working knowledge of the various statutes, administrative policies, child support guidelines, and rules and procedures related to family court operations.

•  Works with the Judge to arrange alternative dispute resolution, evaluations, supervised parental contact and other services required by families.

•  Prepares Final Stipulation and Order.

•  Directs or refers parties to appropriate community and court programs, legal services and alternative dispute resolution.

•  Maintains effective working relationships with judicial officers, the legal profession, co-workers and personnel of other state departments and community agencies.

•  Performs related duties as required.

The above statements provide the general nature and level of work performed by employees of this classification. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the responsibilities, duties and skills required of this classification. Actual assigned duties may differ due to the varying needs of the Judiciary.

(Required to perform the essential functions of the job.)

Education: Bachelor's Degree

Experience: Two years or more in a judicial setting, or in a legal setting above entry level

or

Two years at or above a technical or professional level in social work, psychology, child development, mediation, family counseling or a related field.

Graduate work in counseling or a related field may be substituted for up to one year of experience on a semester for six months basis. Completion of a one-year program in paralegal studies/mediation may be substituted for six months of experience.

•  Ability to work independently and effectively under time and workload demands.

•  Ability to exercise good judgment, tact and courtesy in dealing with people.

•  Ability to identify, analyze and resolve problems effectively.

•  Ability to communicate effectively, both oral and written.

Duties are performed primarily in a standard office setting within a Family Court. Duties normally occur within a regular weekday schedule, however, this person may be required to work in the evening and on weekends to assist litigants and to meet with community organizations. Some travel may be necessary, for which private transportation must be available. Stressful interaction with upset or emotional litigants may occur. Workload may frequently be heavy.