Bruce Peterson is one of the more thoughtful judges in Minnesota. Although his practice as a lawyer prior to becoming a judge included little if any family law practice (he served as an Assistant United States Attorney and at a firm in private practice), he has a deep conviction that courts need to be more effective in family law. Since becoming a judge, he has served two terms in a fulltime family court assignment and recently established a co-parenting court. Minnesota Public Radio profiled the co-parenting court this week.

Across the U.S., 40 percent of children are now born to unmarried parents. This demographic shift, primarily among younger, low-income parents, can pose a challenge to a child support system designed chiefly to extract money from paychecks.

The court  Judge Peterson developed  is now trying a new approach, one that’s about more than just the money, as it attempts to keep both parents involved in the lives of their kids. Judge Bruce Peterson noticed a problem: Young men were showing up for paternity establishment and child support hearings, but the future of their families looked shaky.

“We were telling young dads, ‘Congratulations, you’re the father legally now. Here’s your child support obligation.’ ” Peterson says. “So it was very apparent to me there was much more work to be done to support these young parents.”

Unlike divorce cases, where the couple has a shared history, never-married parents who show up in Peterson’s courtroom may not know each other well. The full story can be found at.

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/07/152157287/never-married-parents-get-help-from-special-court