LFLR 7. UNIFIED FAMILY COURT.

        (a) Purpose of Unified Family Court. The purpose of the Unified Family Court (UFC) is to promote effective judicial management of cases involving the health and welfare of children, and to facilitate the prompt resolution of these cases.
        (b) UFC Case Manager. The role of the UFC case manager is to provide coordination and monitoring of case progress and compliance with court-ordered services. The UFC case manager may summarize the contents of the various court files for use by the commissioners and judges. All information summaries provided to the court will also be provided to all parties either orally or in writing. 
        (c) Referral to UFC. Referrals for UFC case management may be made by any judicial officer, the parties or attorneys, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Family Court Services, Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), domestic violence advocates, juvenile probation officers, family law facilitators, or other persons involved with a family. If a case is accepted for UFC case management, all pending juvenile and family law cases concerning the family and the children, except for juvenile offender matters, will be transferred to UFC and managed together as a case group. 
        (d) UFC Case Area Designations (UFS or UFK). Each case accepted for UFC case management will have its original case area designation (SEA or KNT) changed upon acceptance to UFC; SEA will be changed to UFS and KNT will be changed to UFK. The Order on Acceptance to Unified Family Court will include an order changing the designation for all associated cause numbers to UFS or UFK. All parties shall use the new case area designation (UFS or UFK) on all pleadings or orders filed after the date of acceptance for UFC case management. 
        (e) Planning Conference. If the UFC case manager believes a planning conference 
would assist the court in managing the case, a planning conference will be set. At the planning conference, the court will address administrative issues that affect case management, including but not limited to issues such as consolidation of various pending matters, coordination of case schedules, use of alternative dispute resolution; evaluations needed for trial or hearings, compliance with evaluations or services previously ordered, and discovery.
        (f) Motions. Motions in a UFC case shall be scheduled and heard in conformance with the Order on Acceptance to Unified Family Court.
        (g) Termination of UFC case management. A case will no longer receive court supervision or case management upon the signing of an order terminating UFC case management. The case area designation of UFS or UFK will not be changed upon termination of UFC case management services. Any motions filed after the entry of an order terminating UFC case management shall be scheduled and heard in accordance with these rules in general, including LFLR 5.

[Adopted effective September 1, 2004]