In Family Court, all new dependency or neglect filings are bundled with any other filings pertaining to the same family and overseen by the same judge. To study the effectiveness of the court, eligible cases were randomly assigned to Family Court or to the traditional court process.

The evaluation of 27 Family Court and 28 control group cases found that the court personnel agreed that the one family/one judge system created a more informed bench and allows them to better respond to the needs of the case. Further, it allows judges and other professionals to see the families more holistically. Other impacts include a possible difference in treatment plans, with Family Court cases more often including court-ordered counseling; some control group cases had overlapping orders; and there was no evidence that Family Court cases had fewer hearings.

Children involved in Family Court had shorter out of home placement time, with an average of three months as compared to six months for control group children. However, both groups progressed through the court system at a similar pace, with the possible exception of non-dependency cases. These were more likely to have closed at the time the files were reviewed if they went through Family Court than if they were in the control group.

In addition to the above findings, the study recognized the need for a few changes in the program. These included the need for increased flexibility in deciding which cases should be bundled, the benefit of increasing the rotation period for Family Court judges, and the possibility of including felony convictions in Family Court.