What is FRSC?
The Family Resolutions Specialty Court (FRSC) is a problem-solving court using collaborative teams to help parents with a child or children under 18 settle issues in the Probate and Family Court.
FRSC offer:
- Support for co-parents to manage and reduce conflict.
- Help settling parenting and financial arrangements in the child/ren’s best interests.
- Tools for productive future parenting and co-parenting.
- Referrals to community-based services that might be helpful to your family, such as counseling or financial help.
How is FRSC different from the traditional court process?
In FRSC, a family is assigned a Team that includes, at no charge:
- A Family Consultant who is a mental health professional who will guide parents through the Court process. They will offer parents information about co-parenting, parenting skills, and good communication between parents. They will also help parents make a parenting plan and give you referrals for community services if any family member needs outside help.
- A mediator who is a neutral who will help parents exchange information needed to make parenting and financial decisions. The mediator will focus on financial issues such as child support and expenses and (in divorce) dividing marital property. They can help parents reach and write up agreement on all the subjects needed to solve to reach the end of the Court process. (There is no cost up to 10 hours.)
- A Team Coordinator who will help the Team work together and plan the process to meet the family’s needs. The Team Coordinator is a family attorney who is familiar with the process. They are neutral in FRSC and do not act as an attorney for either parent.
- A Child’s Attorney, if any, when it’s helpful to bring the child/ren’s voice to the parents and the Team. The Attorney represents their client’s wishes as part of the collaborative team, but they do not investigate or make recommendations about the child/ren’s best interest.
The FRSC Team will meet in a series of Team Meetings. Sometimes the full team will attend. Sometimes parents will meet with just the Family Consultant, the mediator or other members of the Team to work on the issues. Attorneys representing parents in FRSC with a general or limited appearance will be part of the Team and may attend some meetings as well.
The FRSC Team including the parents and any attorneys will meet with the FRSC Judge in Court Conferences sitting together at a conference table, rather than in formal Court hearings. Parents will be able to speak directly to the FRSC Judge in the court conferences, even if there are attorneys. The FRSC Judge will offer guidance and help parents work towards agreements. The complex court rules of evidence will be relaxed. In FRSC, the main focus is on helping the parents communicate effectively and make all the decisions. If necessary, the Judge will make decisions on subjects the parents can’t agree on. There are usually no motions in FRSC; issues that arise are dealt with by meetings with members of the team. The team may schedule a court conference if the Judge’s input or a judicial decision is needed during the process.
FRSC team members may offer referrals to the family for support services, such as therapy, substance use disorder treatment, educational and developmental support for the child/ren, job training, fuel, housing, and transportation assistance, etc.
Can parents participate in FRSC if they have counsel? Yes. If they are representing themselves? Yes.
Yes. Parents in FRSC may represent themselves, pro se, without an attorney. If only one parent is represented, the team will help create ways to help make the process feel fair to both parents.
Can parents participate in FRSC if they have an attorney?
Yes. Parents may hire an attorney for a general appearance or for a limited appearance representation (LAR) in FRSC. Or they may hire an attorney to consult outside of the court process.
What is the attorney’s role in FRSC?
Attorneys advocate for their parent clients, primarily by educating and counseling them to advocate for themselves. For example, attorneys will still be expected to educate their clients on their rights and on the laws relevant to the case. Most of the laws and rules of court remain relevant in FRSC. (For example, the Rule 410 exchange of information, Rule 411 Automatic Restraining Order, and Rule 401 Financial Statements are all applicable.)
In FRSC, parents commit to openness in the process on all financial issues and on all related issues. Withholding information for strategic or tactical legal purposes has no place in FRSC. Parents meet with the Family Consultant alone, without their attorneys, in a first parent consultation and in many meetings throughout the process. Parents may meet alone with the mediator, as well, although the involvement of the Attorneys in mediation can be negotiated with the parents and the mediator. Rather than speaking for their clients in team meetings and court conferences, attorneys help their parent clients to speak for themselves at least for much of the time. Attorneys will be practicing as equal members of a cross-professional team. This approach to advocacy requires some particular skills to be mastered by the attorneys because they have an obligation to model collaborative behavior for the parents. To that end, attorneys should:
- Respect the equal status of team members by use of first names rather than titles
- Use plain language rather than legalese
- Attend to tone of voice and body language
- Strive for timeliness and preparedness
- Stay aware of the necessity to correspond with all team members with clarity and with regularity so that the full team is aware of the progression of the process
- Look for ways that the special expertise of each team member might be of particular use for a particular family or at a particular time in the process
- Demonstrate commitment to and address the needs of each family member, including the parent the attorney is not representing
Stay aware of situations that become hostile or confusing and use skills to stabilize the process, calling on other team members to assist as needed
The FRSC Legal Coordinator can arrange an orientation to attorneys new in FRSC to help them learn this nontraditional role in the collaborative process. In addition, attorneys are urged to read Fluent in FRSC, a more extensive description of the attorney role. The article is available on mass.gov.
What clients should I recommend for FRSC?
With only a few exceptions, all families with children under 18 are eligible to participate in FRSC. FRSC is an appropriate process for parents who want to communicate better about their child/ren and make decisions together.
Because the parents’ involvement in the process is quite active, you should consider the extent to which your client will feel comfortable speaking up in team meetings and in court conferences. Part of your role is to assist your client to become comfortable in these activities – supporting them, teaching them how to stick with important points, etc.
FRSC is cautious if there is an active 209A Abuse Prevention Order between the parents or if there is a history of 209A orders or domestic violence. Each family will be screened to examine their ability to work together safely and respectfully in the process. If there is an abuse prevention order in existence and the parents decide to enter FRSC and are screened in, they may need to seek an amendment of the abuse prevention order for this purpose.
FRSC is also cautious if there are active mental health or substance use disorder issues or any indication that one or both parents are unable to participate openly and truthfully in the process.
Any issues are explored at intake or if they are raised during the process.
You should review the terms of the Consent to Participate that you and the parents will be required to sign if they wish to participate in FRSC. Be sure that all the provisions are acceptable to your client.
If your client and the other parent have already reached agreement, or if you are able to help them reach agreement easily, there may be no need to participate in FRSC since they could conclude the process quickly in the traditional system.
Are the grounds for a FRSC divorce limited to irretrievable breakdown?
Yes.
Can my clients participate if they do not have children?
Currently, FRSC accepts only families with children under 18. The program may be able to open for people who do not have children at some later time.
How do parents get into FRSC?
Parents may enter FRSC at the very beginning of their case or they can transfer into FRSC if they already have a case opened in the traditional system. In either situation, attorneys and parents may contact the FRSC Legal Coordinator who can provide information about the court and intake process.
If the parents have a pending complaint and opt in to FRSC, what happens to the original complaint and docket number?
The Court will open a new FRSC matter as a subsequent action with the same docket number. There will be a designation in the Court system that the original case is inactive and transferred to FRSC. The parents will file the appropriate FRSC joint pleading (for example, FRSC Joint Petition for Divorce, FRSC Joint Petition for Custody-Support-Parenting Time). If the parents have already paid the fee for the traditional pleading, another fee will not be required. If parents have not initiated a traditional pleading prior to the FRSC pleading, and therefore have not paid a filing fee, the Court will assess one at the time of filing the FRSC pleading.
Does Supplemental Probate and Family Court Rule 411—automatic restraining order—apply to the FRSC process?
Yes. If the parents have filed a Complaint for Divorce or a Complaint for Separate Support prior to agreeing to participate in FRSC, the automatic restraining order goes into effect as of that filing. If the parents have not filed a traditional pleading prior to agreeing to participate in FRSC, the automatic restraining order goes into effect with respect to both parents at the time they file their FRSC Joint Petition for Divorce or FRSC Joint Petition for Separate Support. There is a provision in the parents’ FRSC Consent to Participate requiring them to comply with the automatic restraining order.
Does Supplemental Probate and Family Court Rule 401—financial statement—apply to the FRSC process?
Yes. The parents will be required to submit completed Financial Statements before mediation and to update the Financial Statements as needed throughout the FRSC process.
Does Supplemental Probate and Family Court Rule 410—mandatory self-disclosure—apply to the FRSC process?
Yes. However, because the FRSC process is different from traditional cases, team members will discuss this with the parents and their attorneys to plan the scope and timeframe for the self-disclosure process.
Who can opt out of FRSC and for what reasons?
A parent can opt out of FRSC at any time before the Final Court Conference for any reason. Any member of the support team can recommend at any time that a family leave FRSC if they believe that FRSC is inappropriate for the family (for example, if there are concerns about domestic violence, capacity, or a lack of cooperation or transparency). The FRSC Judge may end the process and refer a family out of FRSC at any point.
What happens to the FRSC case if there is an opt-out?
The Court schedules a Court Conference to help the parent/s be certain they wish to leave FRSC if a parent has initiated the opt-out, or to discuss the team’s recommendation or the Judge’s decision to refer the family out of FRSC. In addition, the Judge informs and helps the parents organize for the closure of the FRSC matter and possible transfer into the traditional system. The full team attends this Court Conference. The FRSC matter is dismissed and the original case, if there was one in the traditional system, is re-opened. The case is assigned to a new Judge. All partial judgments entered in FRSC are binding in the traditional system. If there is an underlying case, then temporary orders in place at the time of the FRSC opt-out remain in place until they can be reviewed by the new Judge. If there is no underlying case in the traditional system, then temporary orders will end when the case is dismissed and closed.
After opt-out, the Family Consultant and Team Coordinator will no longer provide services to the family. The Child’s Attorney will be given an opportunity to withdraw but may choose to remain in the case, subject to the approval of the new Judge. The mediator may continue with the family if they all agree on the arrangement and payment.
How does the FRSC process affect the “length of the marriage” under G.L. c. 208, sec. 48?
The end date for the “length of the marriage” for purposes of G.L. c. 208, sec 48 will be measured from the date of the initiating document - either the date of the filing of the traditional pleading prior to the parents entering FRSC, if there is one, or if not then the date of the joint filing of the FRSC pleading.
Are there any costs in FRSC?
All FRSC team services including the Family Consultant (up to 15 hours of services), the Child’s Attorney, the Team Coordinator and the mediator (up to 10 hours of services) are free to parents.
Parents pay for their own attorney, if they hire one.
Parents pay the same Court filing fee they would pay if they went through the traditional process. If they have already paid the fee in the traditional process and switch to FRSC, they will not have to pay the filing fee again.
If the Court appoints a guardian to determine whether to waive or assert the child/ren’s therapeutic privilege, there may be a fee. The amount will be based on the parents’ incomes and financial resources and decided by the Judge.
Parents pay for any out-of-court services they agree to use, such as counseling, parenting classes, financial advisors, etc. Some of these services may be covered by health insurance.