Kentucky Court of Justice
Jefferson Family Court to celebrate 20 years of serving families and children at reception Feb. 16 in Louisville

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Jefferson Family Court will celebrate 20 years of serving families and children at a reception Thursday, Feb. 16, in Louisville. The event will take place from 4-6 p.m. EST at the Louisville Bar Association at 600 W. Main St. The public and media are invited to attend.

The LBA will host the celebration to recognize Jefferson Family Court’s progression from pilot project to permanent court. Jefferson Family Court began as a pilot project in 1991 and was the first Family Court in Kentucky.

Family Court is a division of Circuit Court and focuses solely on the needs of families and children. The court has primary jurisdiction in cases involving family issues, including divorces, adoption, child support, domestic violence and juvenile status offenses.

Kentucky launched an innovative and ambitious project when Jefferson County began its pilot program in 1991. Family Court introduced a unique solution that would allow one judge to provide continuity by hearing all of a family’s legal problems and issues.

The Family Court model then expanded beyond Louisville to suburban and rural areas across the commonwealth. The project’s success prompted efforts to make Family Court a permanent part of the Kentucky court system. In 2002, Kentucky voters passed a Family Court amendment to the state constitution. The amendment passed in all 120 counties with more than 75 percent of the vote.

Today Family Court serves 3.2 million citizens in 71 Kentucky counties. Kentucky Family Court is considered a national model.

Administrative Office of the Courts
The Administrative Office of the Courts in Frankfort is the operations arm for the state court system. The AOC supports the activities of nearly 3,300 court system employees and 403 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks. As the fiscal agent for the state court system, the AOC executes the Judicial Branch budget.