Citizen Initiative — Full Text

Status Notice

This proposal is a draft citizen initiative / model legislation. It has not been submitted to the Maine Secretary of State and is not an official ballot measure. The text is published for public review, transparency, and discussion.

Core principle: the developmental health of a child should never be subordinated to administrative convenience, procedural gamesmanship, or conflict incentives.

Purpose

This proposed initiative is intended to reform family-law dispute resolution by:

• Prioritizing child wellbeing and stability during disputes
• Reducing unnecessary delay and the leverage it creates
• Ensuring equal procedural treatment and clear expectations
• Deterring exploitation and “weaponized process” within family litigation
• Increasing transparency and accountability where delay or misconduct causes harm

Legislative Findings

The people of the State of Maine find and declare the following:

• Government failure: persistent backlog and structural delay harm children and destabilize families.
• Time is not neutral: a child’s development continues regardless of court scheduling.
• Incentives matter: systems that reward delay and escalation create predictable misuse.
• Transparency matters: the public cannot evaluate performance without visible metrics and reporting.
• Accountability matters: when delay causes harm, there must be review, correction, and prevention.

Definitions

• “Child-impact decision” means an order materially affecting a child’s stability, residence, schooling, contact with a parent, or safety.
• “Delay” means postponement beyond an established timeline absent written findings showing necessity and child-centered justification.
• “Early investigation” means fact-finding initiated upon report or referral prior to contested filings escalating conflict.
• “Transparency metrics” means published statistics regarding continuances, time-to-hearing, time-to-order, and related indicators.

Timing & Delay

1) Child-impact timelines

Establish presumptive timelines for scheduling and ruling in child-impact matters. If exceeded, issue written findings explaining necessity and steps to prevent further delay.

2) Continuances

Limit continuances; require necessity, and consider child stability and developmental time.

3) Delay as leverage

Discourage strategic delay by requiring earlier disclosure and narrowing disputes.

Process & Procedure

1) Consistent procedural treatment

Apply consistent procedural standards: scheduling expectations, predictable consequences for noncompliance, and clear guardrails.

2) Narrowing issues early

Require early identification of disputed issues and structured resolution pathways to reduce unnecessary conflict.

Early Investigation Upon Report

When credible concerns are reported, enable structured early fact-finding before adversarial incentives harden positions.

• Purpose: reduce chaos and prevent “facts by repetition”
• Scope: limited, child-centered stability and continuity fact-finding
• Result: report that informs the court early

Transparency

Publish time-to-hearing, time-to-order, continuances, and backlog indicators on a predictable schedule; archive for year-over-year comparison.

Accountability

When delay exceeds thresholds without adequate findings, trigger review focused on correction and prevention.

Implementation

• Adopt rules/forms consistent with this Act
• Train personnel on timelines and reporting duties
• Publish a metrics baseline, then recurring updates

Severability

If any provision is held invalid, the remainder shall not be affected.