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Welcome, from the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists in California, an independent association of California attorneys who specialize in family law.
To locate an ACFLS member, select Directory Search.
Latest News:
Updated List of CLE DVDs Now Available
This includes the 2010 Spring Seminar, as well as several new Northern California programs. To place your order, download the form here. Meet your continuing education and specialization credits from the comfort of your home or office!
Final Elkins Task Force Report Issued
You may download it here. Stay tuned for further commentary here and on our blog.
18th Annual Spring Seminar A Rousing Success!
With our biggest enrollment yet and a venue most agree was the best ever, the 18th Annual Spring Seminar in Indian Wells was our most successful so far. DVDs of the presentations will soon be available, and a gallery of photos taken during the event will permit all members to share vicariously in the experience.
ACFLS Comments on Elkins Family Law Task Force Draft Recommendations for Family Law Reform
ACFLS’s Board of Directors unanimously adopted the group’s Family Law Reform Committee’s Comments on the Elkins Family Law Task Force Draft Recommendations. The action came on December 5, 2009. at the last meeting of the 2009 Board of Directors, chaired by 2009 President Joseph J. Bell.
The Board also directed that the Comments be published in a Special Edition of the ACFLS newsletter, which is received by the entire membership, and by the family law bench.
In the Comments, ACFLS observes,
"Today California’s courts cannot honor the basic promises made to family law litigants in our constitution, statutes, rules of court, and case law. The disconnect between the due-process mandates set forth in cases like Elkins v. Super. Ct. (Elkins) (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1337 and In re Marriage of Seagondollar (2006) 139 Cal.App.4th 1116 and the realities experienced by most represented and unrepresented parties to California family law proceedings is dramatic."
The ACFLS Comments urge the Task Force to focus on three critical priorities for meaningful family court reform in the face of the funding crisis:
Reallocate Resources.Reallocating existing court funds to family law courts in proportion to the true caseload, complexity and social importance of family law.
Expertise Essential. Staffing courtrooms and other courthouse programs with judges and professionals who have substantial family law expertise.
Not All Parties Must Be Litigants. Completing the Family Law Act’s No Fault revolution by recognizing that not all parties to family court proceedings need be litigants. We must expand and professionalize courthouse CDR (Consensual Dispute Resolution) programs to equal stature with adjudications so that they provide meaningful and effective services and significantly reduce demand for courtrooms.
Click here for the full ACFLS Comments, the Judicial Council's Elkins Family Law Task Force web page, and the first ACFLS report to the task force.
ACFLS Board of Directors 2010 Meeting Schedule:
January 30, 2010: Sacramento
March 26, 2010: Indian Wells
June 12, 2010: Los Angeles
September 26, 2010: Monterey
December 4, 2010: San Francisco
ACFLS DVD library expanded!
See all available titles here, and earn your continuing education hours in the comfort of your own home or office.
Just print out the order form and fax or mail your order today.
New titles include Sacramento presentations on Domestic Violence and Tassi Tracing. Among our most popular titles is the January 2008 presentation on Marriage of Feldman: Get all three hours of this ground-breaking program, A Systematic Method of Enforcing Fiduciary Duties: Analysis and Discussion of Marriage of Feldman, including printed materials, for only $175 (including tax and two-day priority shipping).
You can also order this thee-hour program via 123Signup; we have entered the item as an "event" (arbitrarily dated 3/15/09) to facilitate ordering for our members and others. Other programs that are accessible through our Online Lecture Series are also available as DVDs that can be purchased by downloading and faxing an order form to Lynn, our executive director.
The Online Lecture Series programs can be viewed live on your computer or downloaded in audio form to transfer to your iPod or MP3 player. Just click on the "Lecture Series" link on the left of this page.
Los Angeles Court Child Custody Brochures
Courtesy of the Hon. Robert Alan Schnider, 2009 recipient of the ACFLS Hall of Fame award, we have some excellent child custody brochures on our website. The brochures are in Adobe pdf format and can be printed two-sided to create trifold pamphlets. Click to access the brochures.
Our thanks to Judge Schnider, who before his retirement was the Supervising Judge of the Los Angeles County family law courts.
For information about custody, support and other legal issues, or about mediation, collaborative law and other legal alternatives, select For the Public.
To learn more about ACFLS or the certified legal specialty of Family Law, select For Attorneys.
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* Certified Specialist in Family Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization