The following op-ed is written by Andrea Janovic, candidate for Campbell Co. Family Court judge
I have spent seventeen years as an attorney serving clients throughout northern Kentucky. Family law cases have always been the largest portion of my practice. As you can imagine, these cases present unique challenges because they involve emotion and often bring out the fears, anxieties and vulnerabilities of the clients. I have celebrated when families adopted children, as well as mourned with families who lost a loved one to drugs or suicide. I have cherished every flower brought to me by children to thank me for helping their family stay together. My colleagues and clients know I am a solution-oriented attorney always looking for the best possible outcome for the parties.
A Family Court judge makes critical, often life-changing, decisions about the families who come before the Court. She decides who has custody of a child, who has parenting time, whether or not parental rights will be terminated, and has to make difficult rulings on allegations of abuse and neglect. These are all decisions requiring mature insight into the actual dynamics of families in conflict and what is in the best interest of the child.
I consider “family” to be much more than just the parents and child. My view of family includes multiple generations, including grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Each family member contributes to the rich heritage of the family. Reflecting my core beliefs, I have spent the last seventeen years serving the senior citizen, disabled and lower-income families with low-cost or pro bono services. These experiences have strengthened my awareness of the legal issues that present themselves among these family members. I have a deeper insight into how housing stability, financial and physical exploitation, student truancy, medical challenges, mental health and income-restrictions directly impact a family’s ability to meet its needs and be successful.
As a mother of two children, and a grandmother of three, I am the oldest of the three candidates at 55. I’ve earned every gray hair on my head! I have gone through my own divorce and custody litigation. I have personal experience in these emotional and anxiety-ridden court proceedings. I know what it is like to feel your world is in the hands of the judge, and to hold your breath for every order, whether in your favor or not. I know how a Court succeeds or fails to protect children, identify trauma, and what it is really like when a family seeks relief from a Court and the process becomes an expensive nightmare. In other words, I have a breadth of personal experience to bring to the bench.
Over the years, I have expanded my legal expertise to include additional training in evictions, bankruptcy, probate, non-US parent custody issues, truancy, domestic violence, identifying abuse and exploitation, addressing issues of religion and culture in custody cases, custody evaluations and conflict resolution. All of these subjects can be interwoven in a single family court case, which is why the experience of the family court judge must be as deep as it is broad.
As judge, I will create the “Triumph Program” with local mental health providers to offer parties with a history of trauma the ability to work on healing, so they do not continue to bring that trauma into their parenting, spousal or dating relationships. I will also offer the community a wider range of trained and qualified non-attorney mediators. I want to offer Campbell County families as many opportunities, in and out of the courtroom, to preserve and repair relationships. As part of the “Triumph Program” I will also encourage therapists to assist couples who wish to reconcile at any point in the litigation process.
There are improvements that need to be made in the day-to-day management of the Campbell County Family Court, such as how cases are scheduled and managed. New methods of managing cases need to be implemented to move cases along more quickly so we utilize the Court’s limited resources more efficiently. Making these changes will require vision, leadership and commitment to realistic goals. As judge, I will use my leadership and legal experience to restructure the case dockets to have bi-weekly motion dockets and monthly dockets for final hearings. I will also increase our community’s access to justice by increasing the number of attorneys working on the GAL Panel who will represent families in juvenile matters. I will also implement a mentoring program in which senior attorneys will mentor the new attorneys serving as GALs to ensure competent representation from day one.
As the Family Court Judge for Campbell County, I will foster an even-handed, no-nonsense atmosphere in my courtroom. I will honor the dignity of each person coming before the Family Court. And I pledge to remember at all times that the Court is to apply the law, not create the law. I am committed to upholding the integrity of our judicial system for every family in Campbell County. I ask for your vote in the primary on May 17.