For Families and Children

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), Center for Families, Children & the Courts (CFCC) is dedicated to improving the quality of justice and services to meet the diverse needs of children, youth, parents, families, and other users of the California courts.  To that end, the division supports programs in collaborative justice, domestic violence, language access, mentally ill court users, representation, services to self-represented litigants, tribal projects, veterans’ courts, and other programs that improve practice in family and juvenile, as well as other case types.

What's New at CFCC

The State Bar of California, along with the Legal Aid Association of California and the Administrative Office of the Courts, presents the 2012 Pathways to Justice Conference. The main conference on June 7 and 8 will take place at UC Hastings College of the Law in the David Snodgrass Hall. Pre-conference sessions on June 6 and the LAAC Awards of Merit Reception on June 7 with be held at the AOC headquarters in San Francisco.

Pathways to Justice brings together staff, board members and volunteers from legal services and pro bono providers, self-help centers, small claims advisors services, lawyer referral services, law schools and other justice partners. The conference offers workshops and network opportunities that help participants improve access to justice in California. Because the AOC is unable to fund the California Conference on Self-Represented Litigants this year, we encourage self-help workers to attend this conference if they can. For more information please see the Pathways to Justice Conference website, which includes information about scholarships.  

Education and Resources

AOC Briefing: Defining Recidivism in Juvenile Justice (April 2012)
This is an overview of common definitions of recidivism and the challenges of not having one standardized definition.

AOC Literature Review: Mental Health Courts (April 2012)
This is an overview of the literature on mental health diversion programs and mental health courts.

Family Law

• Unified Courts for Families
• Family Dispute Resolution
• Child Support
• Access to Visitation

Juvenile Law

• Delinquency
• Dependency
• Crossover Projects