A first-person account of a typical day on the bench for a family court judge-- A chaotic, dramatic, and authentic narrative that invites readers into the frantic world of family court-- The author has been a family court judge for five yearsAs headlines scream the failure of our judicial system, Judge Richard Ross's A Day in Part 15: Law and Order in Family Court provides a perceptive, enlightening chronicle of a typical day in the life of a family court judge. It's the busiest family court in the country -- each judge is expected to process 65 cases per day. In the Bronx Family and Bronx Criminal Court building, courtrooms are fashioned from storage spaces and hallways, a far cry from the mahogany-lined chambers of the mythical halls of justice.Judge Ross offers us a play-by-play of the dramas that unfold in one day. As the morning commences, he rules on a Child Welfare Agency investigation, an order of protection, DNA test results, and an assault. By noon Ross has confronted the basic fare of family court: attempted suicide, adoption and parental rights termination, paternity suits, child abuse and neglect, and juvenile delinquency. The hearings vary from one-minute proceedings to half-hour arraignments to full-blown thais. Rich in courtroom detail, this expose reveals the workload, caseload, and overload of today's system. Because there are no juries in the New York City Family Court, the judge is both fact-finder and arbiter -- who must render decisions in haste with the law and common sense for guidance.Ross's first-person account of the court system holds up a mirror to American society, reflecting familial conflict from the ridiculous to the calamitous. Theissues of family court cut across socioeconomic lines and involve levels of bureaucracy of Kafkaesque complexity.