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The Fayette Family Court System

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Thomas Cothran is an attorney who practices in family law, focusing on uncontested divorces. This is part of his Guide to Uncontested Divorces.

The Fayette County Family Court system handles all divorces, whether contested or not. The Family Courts handle most family matters. Divorces are handled on the civil docket. Family judges also handle domestic violence cases, neglect or abuse cases, and status cases.

What Lexington Judges Handle Uncontested Divorces?

If you pursue an uncontested divorce, your case will be randomly assigned to one of the four Fayette County Family Court judges. The names of the judges are:

  • Honorable Timothy Philpot, Division 1
  • Honorable Judge Schrader, Division 2
  • Honorable Lucinda Masterton, Division 3
  • Honorable Kathy Stein, Division 4

If you or a spouse have previously had a case in the Fayette Family Court system, your case will be handled by the same division that case was in. This is called the “one family, one judge” rule.

Local Fayette County Rules for Uncontested Divorces

There are several sets of rules for contested and uncontested divorces. First, there are the statewide statutes. These are mostly found in KRS Chapter 403. Then there is the statewide Family Court Rules. Finally, there are the local family court rules.

Any uncontested divorce has to strictly follow both the statewide and the local rules. You can find Fayette County’s local rules here.

 

Contact Information for Fayette County Family Courts

To contact the Fayette County Family Courts, use the following contact information. Note, however, that no-one at the courthouse can answer any legal questions or give legal advice. For that you need a family lawyer.

  • General contact number: 859-246-2789. Most family court functions are in the Circuit Courthouse, located at 120 North Limestone, Lexington, KY 40507.
  • Fayette County Circuit Clerk’s office: 859-246-2141. Located on the first floor of the circuit courthouse.
  • Fayette County Domestic Violence clerks: 859-246-2248. Located on the fourth floor of the District Courthouse.
  • Fayette County Juvenile clerks: 859-246-2234. Located on the fourth floor of the District Courthouse.

View the map with the Fayette Circuit Courthouse below:

Supreme Court Prohibits Some Cell Phone Searches

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cell phone searchThe Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in Riley v. California that cell phones are constitutionally protected from warrantless searches. The Court stated:
Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may  reveal, they hold for many Americans “the privacies of  life,” Boyd, supra, at 630. The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple—get a warrant.
This is a good decision. The advent of technology has led in many ways to a diminishment of privacy. Had the Court mechanically applied previous case law (which allowed police to search the pockets, for example, of those they arrest without a warrent), an enormous amount of private information would have been available without a warrent.
Scotusblog comments: “The result was the broadest constitutional ruling on privacy in the face of modern technology since the Court’s ruling two Terms ago limiting police use of satellite-linked GPS tracking of a suspect’s movements by car.”

Contact Information


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Email: [email protected]

Located at:

Thomas Cothran, Attorney at Law
271 W Short St
Ste 405
Lexington, KY 40507

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