Rule 130.09 Adoption, Amendment, Modification or Rejection of Findings and Recommenations - Entry of Judgment - Ordering De Novo Hearing

When a family court commissioner makes findings and recommendations in a case, a judge has to review them before anything becomes final. The judge can accept the commissioner's findings exactly as written, change them in some way, or reject them completely.

If the judge agrees with the commissioner's findings, the judge signs off on them and turns them into an official court judgment. This makes the recommendation legally binding.

If the judge does not agree with what the commissioner decided, the case does not just end there. Instead, the judge schedules a new hearing, called a hearing de novo, which means the judge will look at the case fresh and hear it personally. After that hearing, the judge makes the final decision and enters a judgment based on what was presented.

This rule matters because it means a commissioner's decision is not automatically final. A judge always has the power to double check the decision, change it, or start over with a new hearing if needed. This gives people in the case an extra layer of review before a final judgment is made.