VOTE411 Voter Guide

In the 16th judicial district, division 2 is the "family law" division. Divorce, custody, guardianship, adoption, and visitation cases are all heard in division 2.

I have handled all types of cases in circuit court, including jury and bench trials. However the focus of my private practice has been family law, which makes me uniquely qualified for this position. I handle around 300 family law cases every year and have for the last 15 years. I also have experience representing children in the court system as an attorney ad litem for roughly 45 children currently in foster care in our district. I also hold the AV preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell which is the highest peer review rating for domestic relations attorneys.

As an attorney currently practicing in division 2 every week the biggest challenge I face is the time it takes to get into court for broken families that are living in distress. They need expedited temporary relief. I plan to offer out of county hearings and second and third out trial settings to attempt to have cases heard quickly. The decisions made in division 2 guide the broken families in our district and do not need to be delayed.

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Division Two has jurisdiction over the domestic relations docket (primarily divorces, guardianships, and adoptions) and runs our drug court program. The drug court is a judicially supervised probation program for individuals with drug possession charges or drug motivated low level felonies. The goal of the program is to address the primary cause of repeat criminal behavior which is drug addiction. Drug court requires a different skill set than other types of cases because the judge takes an active role in the supervision of the participants in the program through regular court appearances. The judge's responsibility is to hold participants accountable, address issues when they arise, and maintain the integrity of the program.

I have over sixteen years experience representing thousands of clients, including years advocating for children in juvenile court. I have litigated complex jury trials and argued cases before the Arkansas Supreme Court. I am also the only candidate with over a decade of experience working in our district's drug court program. That experience makes me uniquely qualified to take on the role of running the program because I know how the program is supposed to work and what needs to be done to make it an effective program again. I see the effect drug addiction has on families and children and am committed to making sure our family court does more to meet this need in our district.

Our drug court program is currently failing to meet the needs of our district. The number of participants is down even though the need for treatment and rehabilitation is still great. Most of my clients are parents and by failing to meet this need it is their children, and by extension our entire community, that suffers. I am committed to working hard to restore support for our drug court program among prosecutors and law enforcement by rebuilding it to ensure consistency and predictability in how it is run. I also intend to restore the veterans treatment component of our program which was abandoned several years ago and am committed to doing more to help families struggling with mental health issues.