Why Are More Family Court Cases Going to Trial?

BY Lynn Marshall, Donor Relations Officer

For many families trying to establish or modify a parenting plan, the barriers start long before they ever see a judge.

Every year, there are a few numbers that make us stop and take a second look. 

We already knew this year was different. Week after week, our program team reported more trials, more hearings, and more complex litigation—all in cases involving significant safety concerns for children. 

With just a few weeks to go in our program year, the numbers confirm what we’ve been seeing. Our legal team attended 210 hearings, a 49% increase over the previous year. They also participated in 41 trials, a 128% increase from the year before. 

We’re asking ourselves the same question you might be asking: 

Why? 

From the outside, it can look like parents simply refuse to cooperate or compromise. We see families who carry enormous burdens while trying to navigate one of the most complicated and emotionally charged systems any of us will ever encounter. 

We know many of our families are struggling financially. Some have lost access to support systems they previously relied upon. Others live with uncertainty about the future, including concerns about housing, employment, immigration issues, and the availability of community resources. 

These pressures are not new—but they have certainly intensified over the past year. And they show up in family court over and over. 

• A parent misses a hearing because they cannot get time off work. 
• A parent struggles to upload court documents because they only have access to a public computer—or because the process simply cannot be completed on a phone. 
• Help is not available in their first language, and parents find themselves relying on their children to navigate complicated websites and filing systems. 

The result is that cases often stay active longer and become more heavily litigated. Figuring out a way to cooperate takes a back seat to simply meeting the next deadline. And amid all of that, the voice of the child can become harder for everyone to hear. 

When cases remain unresolved, children live longer with uncertainty. Decisions about parenting plans, schooling, safety concerns, and family relationships can remain unsettled for months—or even years. The longer conflict continues, the more important it becomes that the court has access to reliable, child-focused information. 

That is where the Family Law CASA community comes in. 

So far this year, we have served 159 children. We were appointed to 44 new cases and worked across 106 open cases. Our volunteers conducted investigations, interviewed the people involved in children’s lives, reviewed records, and provided the court with independent recommendations focused on one thing: the best interests of the child. 

As the number of hearings and trials increased, so did the demands placed on our volunteers and staff. Every court appearance represents hours of preparation, investigation, documentation, and follow-up.  

Yet amid the challenges, we have noticed something encouraging. 

Our Program Attorney, Ann-Marie Croy, sees judges and commissioners increasingly recognizing the pressures families are facing. 

A few years ago, a missed deadline, a technical problem uploading exhibits, or a parent failing to appear in court might have been more likely to bring a case to an abrupt end. Today, she sees judges and commissioners giving families additional opportunities to participate, correct mistakes, and be heard. 

In other words, while our cases are taking longer, the court is often making a conscious effort to ensure that families do not lose their chance to seek a fair outcome because of a single misstep. 

That means more hearings. More delays in getting the case to trial. More work for everyone involved. 

But it may also reflect something important: a growing recognition that families facing significant challenges still deserve a meaningful opportunity to be heard, no matter how complicated their circumstances may be. 

We don’t have all the answers. But we do know that access to justice matters. It is one reason we have spent the past year advocating for increased court resources whenever we have the opportunity. This year, a new commissioner will also join the bench, bringing additional capacity to a system under significant strain. It’s not enough, but it is at least a start. 

And we know that the children in our cases need their CASAs—someone focused on their well-being when conflict threatens to drown out their voices. 

The numbers tell us that family court is becoming more complex. They also remind us why this work matters. 

Thank you for standing alongside us in it.

Want to better understand what may be contributing to these trends? Explore some of the barriers families face before they ever reach family court.