YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Family Court

New family court judge sworn in

January 04, 2007|Mike Moore

The Honorable Michael Dixon made history Dec. 28 by becoming the first 13th District family court judge when he was sworn in at a ceremony in the Jessamine County circuit courtroom.

Family Court is a relatively new concept that was created by a constitutional amendment in 2002.

The court's hefty workload includes all divorce, domestic violence, custody, property division, dependence abuse cases and all cases involving juveniles. Prior to Dixon's swearing in, multiple judges oversaw the many different cases.

"It's going to be a tremendous improvement over the present system," Dixon said. "It's got great potential."

The streamlining of the court system will allow the same judge to hear all matters that may arise involving a particular family, providing consistency for the parents and children and eliminating time-consuming explanations of background details.

"That's the primary philosophy behind what (Kentucky Chief Justice) Judge (Joseph) Lambert did," Dixon said. "Instead of having them split, one judge hears all of that, (and) they know the whole family and all of the problems."

Dixon, who previously served as the district's domestic relations commissioner, comes into the office with a wealth of knowledge in dealing with domestic issues.

"That was just very fertile training ground," he said. "It gives me nine years of experience of listening to divorce cases."

Being the first family court judge in the district, Dixon will have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for the future.

"He's going to start a Pro Se docket," Circuit Clerk Doug Fain said.

Fain said often times, couples pursuing a divorce choose to file all the paperwork themselves because they cannot afford an attorney. By having a Pro Se docket, set aside for a particular day of the week or month, Dixon will walk them through the process.

"That's a novel idea," Fain said. "I think it will be a great thing for those people.

"Mike has always been known to be very fair when dealing with domestics," Fain added. "The attorneys speak very highly of him. He'll do what he thinks is the right thing to do according to the law."

The addition of a family court judge is expected to expedite court proceedings for domestic cases, preventing backlogs for everyone.

Dixon will divide his time between Jessamine and Garrard counties. He estimated 70 percent of his time will be spent in Jessamine County.

Dixon joins Circuit Judge Hunter Daugherty in the 13th Circuit.

Currently, there are 37 sitting family court judges serving 43 counties in Kentucky.

The court will employ its own social worker, and the staff will provide services such as mediation, anger management, counseling and education.

|

|

|