Jury Trial??

[ceara19]

Ceara.....ummmm how did you get that??? Anyways....just to give you a point of learning, alot of courts do rotate district court and family court judges back and forth. Faith

I'm just basing it on experience. In the states that I have resided in, Family Court judges and Criminal Court judges are completely seperate. There is no rotation between the two. In many states, the judges are elected officials and they don't allow a judge that was elected to Family Court hear criminal cases and vice versa. But, I guess if they are appointed officials, there wouldn't be a conflict.

 

[weenor]

the judge in our custody matter is the same judge who heard my ex's gf felony drug cases

That is not uncommon at all in smaller jurisdictions. Alabama has 68 jurisdictions and only a few have separate juvenille and/or domestic relations courts. Most of the counties have one or two circuit judges that hear criminal, civil and domestic relations cases.

 

[acmb05]

I'm not really keen on the idea of a jury trial in a custody case. Since it would only require a majority what would you do if a few people got on the jury who were completely against a father having custody no matter what? Or vice versa?

 

[weenor]

I'm just basing it on experience. In the states that I have resided in, Family Court judges and Criminal Court judges are completely seperate. There is no rotation between the two. In many states, the judges are elected officials and they don't allow a judge that was elected to Family Court hear criminal cases and vice versa. But, I guess if they are appointed officials, there wouldn't be a conflict.

And the judges in Alabama are elected.

 

[Whyte Noise]

I know that in Georgia you can request/have a jury trial.

Also in Georgia, divorces/custody/child support/visitation modifications are heard in Superior Court, by a Superior Court Judge. Superior Court is also the court that deals with criminal cases.

 

[faithnlve]

Wow I guess it depends upon your state. But, still...I don't understand our state constitution...If in fact a parent wants a trial by jury in regards to fighting for their rights can they request one in our state? I copied our state constitution on my post.

 

[Whyte Noise]

According to what I found, no... in Vermont there are only court trials, not jury trials for child custody/visitation/etc. cases.

http://www.vermontjudiciary.org/courts/CourtAdmin/Stats/ct_structureFY97.htm

If you look at the 3rd column (Family Court) at the very bottom of that column ("case types") you will see that it lists only "court trials" as an option.

If you look at the first 2 columns you will see "Court trials" AND "Jury trials" listed as options.

 

[ceara19]

And the judges in Alabama are elected.

Are they elected just as a Judge? Here, they are elected for a specific court. Due to the fact that we only have 1 family court judge, there are a few occasions here where a criminal court judge will here a family court case if there in a conflit of interest with the fc judge. Even then, they try to arrange for a visiting family court judge to hear the case first.