North, Virginia L.

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Marquette Law ReviewVolume 18Issue 4 June 1934 Article 3Milwaukee's Approach to Juvenile and DomesticRelations CasesVirginia L. NorthFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulrPart of the Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion inMarquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contactmegan.obrien@marquette.edu.Repository CitationVirginia L. North, Milwaukee's Approach to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Cases, 18 Marq. L. Rev. 241 (1934).Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol18/iss4/3MILWAUKEE'S APPROACHTO JUVENILE AND DOMESTICRELATIONS CASESVIRGINiA L. NORTHaT HE word "family" immediately calls up a mental picture of agroup of individuals closely related by blood ties, living togetherin one home: eating their meals together, making plans together, inter-dependent upon each other for the necessities and comforts of dailylife and, in particular, mutually influencing each other through all theintimate associations of shared responsibilities and pleasures. But whenthat unit ceases to rotate in the normal course around its axis and getsso far out of line that at some point it comes in contact with thelaw, what happens to the aspect of interdependence and mutual influ-ence? In most instances that aspect disappears entirely and each indi-vidual is dealt with as though he had no connection whatsoever withthe other members of the group, not to mention the added confusioncaused by unrelated treatment given to different phases of one individ-ual's conduct.The United States Bureau of the Department of Labor has madea careful study, carried on over a period of nearly four years, of thelegal methods used in each state for handling problems which ariseout of the family relationship. The legal research was carried on byBernard Flexner of the New York Bar and Reuben Oppenheimer ofthe Baltimore Bar working with Katharine F. Lenroot of the Chil-dren's Bureau. The results of this study were published under the titleof "The Child, the Family and the Court"' together with a chart2 whichsets forth the statistics on which it is based. As that is the most com-plete and authentic study that has been made of judicial procedure injuvenile and domestic relations cases, it can well be used as a standardin discussing the situation in any given community; and this articlewill follow the same classification there used, dividing-the whole prob-lem into six general types of cases:31. Children's cases covered by juvenile court laws including de-linquent, dependent and neglected children.2. Offenses against children including contributing to delinquencyand dependency and specified crimes against children.3. Cases of desertion and non-support of children.4. Cases of divorce and separate maintenance when children areinvolved.I Children's Bureau Publication No. 193 (1933).2Children's Bureau Chart No. 17 (1930).3 Children's Bureau Publication No. 193, p. 5 (1933).THE MARQUETTE LAW REVIEW5. Proceedings for the establishment of paternity and the enforce-ment of support of children born out of wedlock.6. Children's cases usually within the jurisdiction of probatecourts, including adoption, guardianship of the person and commitmentof mentally defective and insane children.PRESENT SITUATION IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY1. Children's cases covered by juvenile court laws including de-linquent, dependent and neglected children.All cases in this group, of children under eighteen (with concur-rent jurisdiction over children between the ages of 16 and 18), arehandled by the juvenile court under the Children's Code.4 It is a specialcourt presided over by a judge selected once a year by all the judgesof the courts of record in the County, from one of their number. 5 Thehearings are held in the Detention Home apart from any other courtwork and are informal, only persons interested in the case and thenecessary officials being present. The Press is admitted but by rule ofcourt pursuant to law, publication of the names and addresses of thechildren brought before the court is forbidden.6 In addition to the casesactually heard by the Juvenile Court in session, a great number ofcases, in fact by far the greater number, are taken care of informallyby the Juvenile Court Probation staff without the necessity of a courthearing.2. Offenses against children, including contributing to delinquencyand dependency and specified crimes against children.Where the conduct of an adult (person over 18) is such as to fallwithin the definition of a misdemeanor, whether under city or countyordinance or state law, he is tried in the District or Police Court eventhough the misdemeanor was committed against or involved a minorunder eighteen, and, in like manner, an adult accused of a felony istried in the Municipal or general criminal Court. The only exceptionis that under the Children's Code an adult may be proceeded againstin the Juvenile Court for contributing to the delinquency or dependencyof a child found to be delinquent or dependent by the Juvenile Court.7In such case, among other things, an order may be made for the sup-port of the child and the money paid to the Clerk of the JuvenileCourt.83. Cases of desertion and non-support of children.Abandonment, which includes non-support and desertion, is a fel-4 Sec. 48.01 (5) (a) Wis. Stats. (1933). The children's code was first passed aschapter 439 Wis. Laws of 1929.5 Sec.48.01 (2), Wis. Stats. (1931).6Sec.48.01 (3), Wis. Stats. (1933).7 Sec. 48.01 (5, c), 48.08, Wis. Stats. (1393).8 Sec. 48.08, supra, note 7.JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS CASESony9 and the defendant is tried in the Municipal Court'0 with a pre-liminary hearing, if he so desires, in District Court. The warrant isauthorized by the District Attorney and the preliminary investigationis carried on, sometimes by a member of the District Attorney's staffand sometimes by the Domestic Relations Department of the Depart-ment of Outdoor Relief, (the County Relief agency). In many in-stances an attempt is made by the Domestic Relations Department ofthe Department of Outdoor Relief to enforce support without thenecessity of court action and payments are made by the husband andfather through the Department of Outdoor Relief. If a warrant is is-sued and the defendant convicted, he may be sentenced or he may beput on probation and ordered to make payments through the ProbationDepartment of the Municipal Court."4. Cases of Divorce and Separate maintenance where children areinvolved.All divorce cases, and there are about 1500 divorce judgments ayear in Milwaukee County, are tried in Circuit Court with the DivorceCounsel, a member of the District Attorney's staff,'2 making investiga-tion to prevent collusion and appearing to represent the State in alldefault cases.' 3 There are eight branches of the Circuit Court and acontested case is assigned to any one of the eight branches. All defaultdivorces, motions to set alimony and support money, and contempt mo-tions to enforce such orders are heard in the calendar branch whichis presided over by each of the eight judges in turn for a period of twomonths, except during July and August when the judges rotate everyweek. All payments of alimony and support money ordered by theCircuit Court are paid through the office of the Clerk of the CircuitCourt. The alimony department has at all times about four thousandactive alimony accounts.When payments are in arrears, the wife may employ her ownattorney to assist her in making collection, or, if she cannot afford toemploy her own attorney, she may have free of charge the services ofthe Clerk of the Circuit Court and the Divorce Counsel who will takethe necessary steps for her.'1 4 As a matter of policy, abandonment war-rants are not resorted to for the collection of alimony unless the de-faulting ex-husband is outside the state and it is necessary to call intoaction the machinery for extradition.Except for the investigation required of the divorce counsel which,due to the tremendous pressure of work, must of necessity be perfunc-9 Sec. 351.30. Wis. Stats. (1933).10 Sec. 351.31 Wis. Stats. (1933)."1 Sec. 351.30 (4), Wis. Stats. (1933).'1 Sec. 247.13, Wis. Stats. (1933).'3 Sec. 247.14, 247.15 Wis. Stats. (1933).14 Sec. 247.29, Wis. Stats. (1933).THE MARQUETTE LAW REVIEWtory, there is no means of getting at the true cause of the marital rift.In a few cases where the custody of the minor children is seriouslycontested the matter is referred, by consent of the parties, to the Juve-nile Court. One of the probation officers then gathers the necessary in-formation and makes his report on home conditions to the CircuitCourt. Because of the limited juvenile probation staff this service canbe called upon only in extreme cases.5. Proceedings for the establishment of paternity and the enforce-ment of support of children born out of wedlock.Complaints in illegitimacy cases are made to a member of the Dis-trict Attorney's staff. 5 If he is satisfied that there is a prima faciecase, the alleged father is called in or a summons or warrant issued bythe Clerk of the Civil Court. In many instances a paternity agreementand financial settlement is arranged informally in the District Attor-ney's office and approved by Civil Court' 6 If the case goes to trial, it isheard by any one of the seven branches of the Civil Court. All pay-ments for the support of illegitimate children are made to the Superin-tendent of the Department of Outdoor Relief as trustee,' 7 and in caseof non-payment, abandonment proceedings are instituted as set forth inSection 3 above.6. Children's cases usually within the jurisdiction of probatecourts, including adoption, guardianship of the person and commit-ment of mentally defective and insane children.The cases in this class are under the jurisdiction of the CountyCourt and are heard in either of the two branches although the prelim-inary steps may have been taken by the Juvenile Court. Under theChildren's Code all proceedings in adoption matters are kept in a lockedfile' s and can be withdrawn only upon order of the court. The codealso provides for investigation by the State Board of Control or someother agency of homes into which children are placed for adoption.'In addition to the above classes of cases there are a number oflesser criminal offenses between members of a family which are moredomestic than criminal in character because of the circumstances un-der which they arise, e.g., assault and battery, threatening to kill, va-grancy by reason of being a common drunk, where the complainant isa member of the accused's immediate family.A great number of domestic complaints where no legal action isdesired or is practicable are heard by the Domestic Relations Officer15 Sec. 166.08, Wis. Stats. (1933).16 Sec. 166.07, Wis. Stats. (1933).'17 Sec. 166.18, Wis. Stats. (1933).'s Sec. 322.06, Wis. Stats. (1933).'9 Sec. 322.02, Wis. Stats. (1933).on the District Attorney's staff and by the Domestic Relations Depart-ment of the Department of Outdoor Relief.It will readily appear from the above exposition that legal proce-dure in cases arising out of the family situation is so spread aroundamong the several courts and various departments of municipal govern-ment as to cause great confusion. As each separate court and depart-ment has its own records with no central clearing house of information,it is a tedious matter and often one of great difficulty to get a completerecord of the domestic discord and the treatment thereof in any onefamily. It isiperfectly possible for a mother to be tried as a commondrunkard in the District Court, the father for abandonment in theMunicipal Court, and the children brought into the Juvenile Court asdelinquent, and for the Circuit Court to hear a divorce case arising outthe whole situation without ever learning of the other court proceed-ingss and this through no fault of the attorneys or Divorce Counsel.The social situation leading up to the court proceedings is, in eachinstance, both cause and effect of all the others. Complete justice can-not be dispensed in any one of the cases because the court trying it isignorant of the whole situation, or if it has knowledge of it, is power-less to act except in a restricted area.EFFECT OF FAMILY COURT LAVThe so-called family court law20 which will go into effect July 1,1934 is designed to alleviate this situation to a great extent. It does notaffect the jurisdiction of the several courts but it does provide, in addi-tion to creating a ninth branch of the Circuit Court,21 for changes inadministration to promote efficiency in handling domestic relationsproblems and for co-ordination between the courts and administra-tive departments.The Juvenile Court is left as it now exists except that the judgemust be selected from among the nine Circuit judges and shall pre-side in Juvenile Court for a term of at least two years instead of forone year only.22 This is in line with the recommendations of "TheChild, the Family and the Court" which urges that no steps be takento better the handling of general domestic relations problems whichwill in any way subvert the gains already made in dealing with the firstclass of cases referred to above.23 It also recommends the extension of20 Ch. 428, Wis. Laws, 1933, as amended by c. 432, sec. 2, 3, and 4, Wis. Laws,1933, and c. 9 Wis. Laws (Special Session), 1933.21 Sec. 252.07 (1) (b), Wis. Stats. (1933).22 Sec. 48.01 (2), Wis. Stats. (1933).23 Children's Bureau Publication No. 193, p. 50 (1933).246 THE MARQUETTE LAW REVIEWthe term of the presiding judge to aid in the development of a special-ized technique for the work.The law further provides that one branch of the Circuit Court bedesignated for a term of not less than two years2 to hear all cases aris-ing under the laws relating to marriage, divorce, annullment and ha-baes corpus of persons under eighteen years of age.2 5 As a divorcecase involving a continuing order for alimony and support money andthe custody of children is not over and done with upon the entry ofjudgment, it is advantageous to have one judge hear such matters overa continued period of time. He can keep the situation under bettercontrol and the parties, free from conflicting orders made by succes-sive judges, will tend to carry out with a better spirit the orders thatare made. Elasticity to take care of any imbalance of work among thenine branches and particularly between the domestic relations branchand the branchipresided over by the judge selected to act as JuvenileCourt judge is provided for, but keeping the control of these types ofcases within the family court branches.2"Further cooperation is provided for in the establishment of a de-partment of domestic conciliation to assist the two branches of familycourt and to receive and dispose of all domestic relations complaintsof any nature whatsoever.2 7 This is simply a matter of good businessadministration. The County Board is empowered to gather into one de-partment all the county employees dealing with domestic relations prob-lems28 This does not go to the question of patronage or who shallappoint the employees but it does go to the question of a central physi-cal location of such employees and of a central, coordinated filing sys-tem. It is obvious that if all domestic relations complaints of any naturewhatsoever were handled in one central office, then whatever courtheard the specific case would have ready access to a complete historyof what had taken place in that family up to the present time. Thefiles may be kept private29 except when required for court use and theywill merely furnish to the judge in a few minutes what he might other-wise take an hour or more to elicit by the question and answer method.It also provides that where the judge determines additional informa-tion necessary such as a wage statement, which is now frequently pre-sented to the court by the attorneys in the case, or, on a question ofcustody, he will have access to a greater force of Juvenile Court proba-24 Sec. 252.07 (3) (b), Wis. Stats. (1933).25 Sec. 252.07 (3) (c), Wis. Stats. (1933).26 See note 25.27 Sec. 252.07 (9) (a), Wis. Stats. (1933).28 Sec. 252.07 (11), Wis. Stats. (1933).29 Sec. 252.07 (9) (b), Wis. Stats. (1933).30 Sec. 252.07 (9) (d), Wis. Stats. (1933).JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS CASEStion officers8" do the type of work that they are now doing in the Cir-cuit Court as described in Section 4 above.Because of the great number of divorces tried every year, it isimprobable that the court can have or would want detailed informationon every case. The additional information is usually needed where theparties are unable to work out the solution of their difficulties by them-selves or through their attorneys. If they have sufficient intelligenceand poise to agree to disagree and can stipulate as to alimony and cus-tody, doubtless no further information will be necessary other thanthat furnished by the Divorce Counsel. If at a later date they proveto the court and the public that they cannot manage by themselves, andit is necessary to enforce the provisions by a contempt motion then atthat time, the court can obtain the information necessary to decide themotion.There has been some speculation as to whether the new procedure,or rather extension of an old procedure already begun, will tend to in-duce attorneys to begin divorce actions in other counties. Probably notto any great extent in view of the fact that if a continuing order foralimony or support money is sought, it is not practicable to travel toany great distance from the place of residence. The Circuit Courts ofMilwaukee County are reluctant to enforce alimony and support moneyorders made in other circuits and the beneficiary of such an order mustthen make repeated trips to the other county to enforce payments.The movement towards co-ordinated and efficient handling of juve-nile and domestic relations cases is spreading throughout the UnitedStates. It is not to be hoped that it will prove a panacea for all ills orthat it will reduce the divorce rate in one generation, but it is to beexpected that it will relieve to a great extent the "conflicts with refer-ence to the children's care, education and guidance often incident todivorce or separation and frequently disastrous in their effects on thechildren.""-31 Children's Bureau Publication No. 193, p. 43 (1933).

Milwaukee\u27s Approach to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Cases

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Milwaukee\u27s Approach to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Cases

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