Lipscomb's ICM hosts mediation training for judges statewide
Janel Shoun |
The judges are registered to attend a five-day training on mediation, held by the Lipscomb Institute for Conflict Management. State law already requires judges to refer cases to mediation prior to trial in some cases, but there is more that judges can do to encourage mediation and thus save court costs and overcrowded court dockets.
Expected to attend the training next week are Chief Justice William M. Barker, Justices Janice M. Holder, Gary R. Wade and William C. Koch, Jr., and judges serving in 47 counties throughout the state.
“The general public has a perception that wronged parties should have their day in court, but actually less than two percent of all cases filed make it to a courtroom trial, and a lot of money is spent to get there,” said Larry Bridgesmith, executive director of the institute and attorney with Waller Landsen Dortch & Davis LLP. “Most are settled. So the more familiar judges are with mediation and how it works, the more discerning they will be in referring appropriate cases to mediation prior to trial.
The Administrative Office of the Courts coordinated the training for judges to encourage the use of settlement conferences, said Libby Sykes, administrative director of the courts. Barker and Sykes said both mediation and settlement conferences are reducing the number of cases going to trial.
“Across America we have seen a recent trend with the emergence of alternative methods of resolving legal disputes outside of courtrooms," the chief justice said. "That national trend is being seen here in Tennessee as people seek resolutions to their conflicts without involving judges, juries and the costs of litigation. Across the state, people are becoming qualified as mediators to help with this process. As a consequence, judges need to be equipped with the same kinds of mediating tools so they can serve as settlement conference judges for cases that can be settled rather than litigated. And, of course, the services of these judges are provided without charge to the parties involved in the disputes."
Last year the state legislature passed a law mandating that all cases dealing with family issues must use the mediation process before heading to trial, Bridgesmith said. Several years before that, the legislature mandated that all worker’s compensation claims made against employers must go to a mediation process before trial.
These changes in the law have spurred demand for the institute’s mediation trainings in family mediation (held in March), civil mediation (to be held later in April) and worker’s compensation mediation (to be held in May).
“If you look nationwide, you see a strong movement toward mediation,” Bridgesmith said. “Some states have even mandated it throughout their court systems.”
Over the past year, Lipscomb’s Institute for Conflict Management has trained almost 300 lawyers and professional mediators through continuing education programs, core mediation training and graduate programs. The institute has been hired to provide mediation training for the Tennessee State Department of Labor and Workforce Development in May and was approved as the first educational institution in Middle Tennessee to offer Rule 31 mediation training.
Since its establishment in the summer of 2006, the institute has created a master’s degree program in conflict management, trained volunteer bi-lingual community mediators and high school student mediators, and held several public conferences highlighting methods to deal with conflict in various fields such as health care, business management and religion.