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As the Past-President of AFCC-MN I want to encourage our membership to become active in the legislative process so their voices can be heard. As we saw last year, and will see again, efforts are underway to rewrite our custody laws in Minnesota intended to limit judicial officers’ discretion by creating mandatory presumptions of parenting time rather than allowing our courts to make decisions focused solely on the best interests of children. That type of legislation represents a stark departure from the basic underpinnings of Minnesota family law which, throughout its history, has had as its guiding principle that the best interests of the children who come before our courts are the primary focus, and principle consideration, in cases involving families. To learn more about how to become involved please attend AFCC’s November 15th Conference at NO COST to membership. Click here for more information Sincerely, Jack DeWalt Attorney at Law

Many AFCC Minnesota Chapter members attended the NZB open house on October 3, 2019. NZB includes Nancy Zalusky Berg, Jessica Altmann, Ruta Johnsen, Katie Kelley and Ann Knudson. Pictured here are AFCC Education Committee members Amy Krupinski, Nancy Darcy and Traci Capistrant, Jessie Ware, Nancy Berg, Mindy Mitnick, Anna Street and Jim Street.

As I have met with our committee chairs, I have noticed that we have some opportunities for people to get involved with the AFCC. There are always opportunities to join a committee if you have an interest in that particular area. We have needs to supplement our volunteers in three areas: First, we have two board openings, with no particular sense of urgency, but if you are interested, please contact me and we can discuss what is involved and what skills we are looking for to round out our board. Our membership committee would benefit from adding more people. This committee’s purpose is to recruit and retain members for the Minnesota Chapter. Members of the committee meet regularly, attend all AFCC functions, create and distribute membership materials, and serve as the liaison between the Chapter and potential new members. Our Public Relations Committee can benefit from new members. As you may know, we upgraded our website capabilities and are exploring ways to better use this to serve members. The purpose of this committee is to promote and advance AFCC-MN through increased visibility. Of particular interest is to get people who are interested and skilled at using social media. Please feel free to reach out to committee chairs, or contact me if you are interested: afccmnwebmasters@gmail.com. AFCC-MN President – Referee James Street

AFCC members recently attended the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) annual luncheon. Attendees of the 2018 AFCC Annual Conference may remember NAZ’s CEO Sondra Samuel spoke on a panel which focused on how different communities of color developed resiliency in their families. Those who have seen the documentary Broken Places, which was shown by the AFCC last spring, will recall that the NAZ is featured as a collaboration which uses early intervention and coaching to create high expectations that newborns in the Northside Minneapolis community will graduate from college. Geoffrey Canada, who created a similar widely acclaimed program in Harlem which was the brainchild for NAZ was the featured speaker. Attending the luncheon was current and past AFCC presidents Jim Street, Jack DeWalt and Victoria Brenner, AFCC board members Dr. Jordan Hart and Melissa Chawla, AFCC members Rachel Sibley and Anna Street and Adeola Adekunle, Referee Street’s new law clerk who came from Georgia after completing a fellowship at the University of Georgia Law Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic.

A couple of weeks ago, dozens of AFCC members attended Divorce Camp sponsored by the AAML up at Breezy Point. The topic this year focused on how our own and our clients’/patients’ financial values and biases can impact how some of the financial aspects of divorce are approached. And yes, that is Mindy Mitnick wearing the red AFCC hat in the middle of this picture! Divorce Camp and the AFCC have a rich history together. Some people may not know that it was at Divorce Camp in 2007 that some AAML members sitting around dinner table got the idea of creating a Minnesota Chapter of the AFCC. Everyone involved with the idea had attended AFCC conferences and had read the journal which were their introduction to the AFCC. Gary Debele began the process of forming the chapter, with he and Beth Harrington, Ph.D leading the organizing committee. The Minnesota chapter was formed the same year as the Ontario chapter. Gary Debele was the first president followed by Beth Harrington. As of last month, we have 223 members strong of mental health professionals, lawyers, ADR providers, academics and judicial officers and the numbers are increasing. We value our close relationship with the AAML and the foresightedness of those who had the vision to create this organization back in 2007.

The Supreme Court Advisory Committee on General Rules of Practice has issued its Final Report to the Supreme Court which is attached. As you may know, the Court has already heard from the ADR Ethics Board which proposed changes, public comments and testimony about those proposed rule changes, and the ADR Workgroup which was appointed by the Supreme Court, so there has been extensive input into these proposed rules. This represents its current iteration, but the final rule changes, if any, will be up to the Supreme Court. Click Here For Report The Court will decide whether to solicit further public comments, schedule a hearing, or consider the Final Report of the General Rules Committee without further input – and there is no time frame for when their decision about how to proceed will be made so we simply must wait and see. When the Court announces its intentions, including if the court does allow for further public comment, the AFCC will share that information. I have not yet had time to review this in detail; I wanted to get this report to family law practitioners because these proposed rule changes will impact you when and if they come into effect. James Street Referee of District Court Second Judicial District

AFCC Board member Jordan Hart, Ph.D, and President Referee Jim Street discussing the documentary Broken Places with 190 Guardians ad litem at the Guardians’ annual training at Mystic Lake on September 5. This movie, for which AFCC-MN has the rights to show, discusses how to develop resiliency in children who have experienced high ACES (Adverse Childhood Experience Scores). Hart and Street discussed how resiliency may be fostered in family court and through therapy, and dialogued with Guardians around the state how Guardians in family law and juvenile courts can develop resiliency in children. This documentary produced by Roger Weisberg, is available through the AFCC-MN if you have ideas how we can share this information with other potential audiences in your area.

Our chapter of the AFCC is presenting an excellent opportunity to gain strategies of working with personality disordered individuals in family law on October 11. The information is contained in our events tab of this website. Back as a legal aid attorney at SMRLS, I recall a description by a mental health professional about how to know when I was representing a client with a personality disorder. He said that no matter how hard you work and how good a job you think you are doing, you walk away from an interaction with the client feeling as if you are a failure. As a judicial officer, I often think about no matter what efforts I have made to successfully manage the case, the parties keep coming back to court – with the parties, lawyers (if any) and me feeling frustrated. It is at this moment that I smack my forehead and think, “oh maybe there is a personality disorder involved”. I have learned from my time on the Bench that litigants with personality disorders require a different approach from other cases. For a party, it is emotionally painful having an opposing party with a personality disorder; for the person with the disorder it must also be frustrating. For lawyers, these are the cases which often come to you have several other lawyers have withdrawn. For mental health providers, you may struggle with how to help your patient manage the demands of family court and achieve success where before the patient has run into brick walls. These cases take up a lot of time of mental health professionals, attorneys, courts and litigants. Laurel Ferris, Nancy Darcy and Amy Krupinski as the education committee chair have put in a lot of work bringing in Beth Maultsby to Minnesota to share strategies for professionals working with personality disordered litigants in the courtroom. Ms. Maultsby is from Texas and is a social worker, lawyer, judicial officer and author with over 30 years of experience. This conference promises to be an enlightening training.  I hope you can make it.  Click Here for more information and to register.

Referee Street: Sharing information and opportunities to learn from or participate with other organizations in the community. One of the goals for the AFCC-MN this year is to share information and opportunities to learn from or participate with other organizations in the community.  Towards that end, we will be sharing information about such events in this space.  If you are aware of something which might be of interest to our members, please feel free to share it. The Hmong American Bar Association (HABA) http://habaminn.org/, is holding their annual banquet on October 4, 2019 at 5 p.m. at the Hmong House at 2112 11th Avenue in North St. Paul, MN 55109 This year our theme is Lawyering in the Age of Social Media with guest speaker Susan Humiston, Director of the Minnesota Office of Professional Responsibility. Ms. Humiston will provide ethical rules and scenarios for social media marketing and client relations – helpful guidance for lawyers and non-lawyers alike! Most importantly, the annual banquet is our sole means of fundraising to support the mission and goals of the Hmong American Bar Association which are to develop Hmong legal professionals and educating our community about the law. We look forward to celebrating with you! The Hmong American Bar Association is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to seek justice and to promote knowledge of the law and the legal system to its members, the Hmong community, and the community at large through education, scholarship, assistance, and services. I’ve attended this banquet several times in the past.  It is an intimate gathering and an opportunity to meet Hmong lawyers, mental health professionals and other community leaders.  To register, the cost is $50 and you may connect here: Click here to register.

As Co-Chair of the Child-Focused Parenting Time Guide with the Honorable Sally Tarnowski, we are pleased to provide AFCC MN with the new Guide that will be useful to all professionals who work with families experiencing separation and divorce. This Guide is intended to be a valuable resource for the parents we work with. The Guide provides a developmental focus as well as practical tips for parents who are working on establishing or revising a parenting time schedule for their child. Click here for more information

REGISTER SOON! SPACE IS LIMITED! FREE CLE/Training for Attorneys and Advocates Children’s Testimony in Domestic Abuse Proceedings Training October 5, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. Want to have a better understanding of the role of the child and permissibility of their testimony in domestic abuse proceedings? This training is for you! The Family Court Enhancement Project has been working for four years to help all family court practitioners, including lawyers and advocates, better understand the needs of children and their interests in domestic abuse proceedings. This training will discuss how and when it is appropriate to use children’s testimony as well as the process and relevant evidentiary considerations when deciding to do so. This training will be led by Hennepin County Family Court Referee Mike Furnstahl, family law attorney Tom Tuft of the law office of Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, and Legal Advocate Amanda Keuseman of Home Free Community Programs. This 1.5 hour training is free of charge and will be offered at the Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall S-280. CLE credit has been applied for. If you want to attend, please contact Adam Miller at adam.miller@courts.state.mn.us or 612-596-1412. The information provided in this document was created by the Minnesota Judicial Branch, 4th Judicial District, Family Court Enhancement Project under grant number 2016-FJ-AX-K001. The opinions and views expressed in this document are of the author’s and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice.