This manual was designed to familiarize social workers with the dramatically restructured family court practices in order to prepare them for a family court appearance. Chapter I presents a brief history of the family court and describes such aspects of the family court as confidentiality of proceedings, impact of a court record on the individual, participants in the court process, court flow, custody and detention of juveniles, fingerprinting in juvenile delinquency proceedings, and filing of case records. Chapter II summarizes the laws pertaining to family court jurisdiction and describes proceedings for the following areas: (1) support, (2) paternity, (3) permanent termination of parental rights, (4) adoption, (5) custody, (6) guardianship, (7) juvenile delinquency, (8) person in need of supervision, (9) marriage application, (10) family offense, (11) conciliation, (12) child protection, (13) handicap, (14) material witness, and (15) non-court placement of children (foster care). Chapter III outlines family court procedures such as probation intake, court intake hearings, fact-finding hearings, dispositional hearings, appeals, and foster-care review hearings. Chapter IV describes the resources available to the court at disposition, including the probation investigation, probation supervision, and auxiliary court services. Chapter V discusses the role of the social worker as a witness, the differences between direct questioning and cross-examination, courtroom conventions and decorum, and the other roles of the social worker in the family court. A glossary of related legal terms is appended. (JMB)