Rule 73.Family Law Conference Officer

A family law conference officer is a court employee who runs an informal settlement conference. The role is deliberately modest.

Appointment and neutrality

The presiding judge or a designee may appoint a conference officer to conduct conferences and facilitate agreements about establishing, enforcing and modifying child support, legal decision-making or parenting time, and to affirm or divide property and determine and allocate responsibility for debts.

The officer is a neutral employee of the court who does not represent or advocate for either party. Minimum qualifications are a bachelor's degree, adherence to the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, and 40 hours of basic mediation training completed before appointment or within 6 months of it. The superior court must establish and file written qualifications.

The conference

Proceedings should be informal, but the officer must give the parties an opportunity to present their positions, and may record by electronic means or a certified reporter. A represented party has the right to have counsel present -- a notable contrast with Rule 68(c)(4), where counsel may not attend conciliation court mediation without approval.

What the officer may produce

If the parties agree, the officer may prepare a stipulation, consent decree, consent judgment, written agreement or order for signature, and forward it to the assigned judge for approval. On partial agreement the officer may assist in preparing a partial agreement and the documents needed to effectuate it.

The limits

Two, and both matter. The report to the court lists the parties' agreements or disagreements on legal decision-making, parenting time, child support, property division, debt allocation and attorney fees -- and must not contain recommendations on any of them. The officer is a facilitator, not an evaluator.

And the officer may not conduct a hearing required by statute, including a denial of parenting time, license suspension, a proceeding under the UCCJEA, or the establishment or modification of legal decision-making. Where the legislature requires a judicial hearing, a conference cannot substitute for one.

If a party does not appear, participate, or provide ordered information, the officer may vacate the conference and report the failure to the court. No county is required to use conference officers, but the rule governs if it does.