 Mediation programs for child custody and visitation cases have been a
requirement for each judicial circuit in Illinois through Supreme
Court Rule 905.In 2006, the Supreme Court established a series of
new rules to help ensure that child custody proceedings are handled
expeditiously, competently and with great emphasis on the "best
interest of the child," including expediting all child custody
proceedings, not granting continuances "except for good cause shown"
and requiring a judge to render a decision no later than 60 days
after completion of the trial or hearing.
Those rules, encapsulated in the 900 series, grew from the work
of the Supreme Court Committee on Child Custody Issues that was
established by the court in 2002. Justice Rita B. Garman proposed
formation of the committee and serves as Supreme Court liaison to
the committee.
As part of its continuing efforts to implement a Language Access
Plan for all Illinois courts, the Supreme Court also amended Rule
905(b) to require the court to make a "good faith" effort to provide
an interpreter in cases where a litigant communicates in a language
other than English and to provide a pro bono attorney where
applicable.
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The court also added Section (c) to Rule 905, requiring every
judicial circuit to file a quarterly report with the Administrative
Office of the Illinois Courts, setting out the number of custody,
visitation and removal cases referred to mediation; the outcome of
such referrals; the number of cases referred on a pro bono basis;
and the percentage of cases where the parties expressed satisfaction
or dissatisfaction with the process. The information shall remain
confidential and will be used for administrative and statistical
purposes, as well as for review of the mediation program as a whole.
[Text from file received from the
Illinois Supreme Court]
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