Mediation
This office provides a full range of alternate dispute resolution services, including Mediation, Arbitration and neutral case evaluation. Read below for more information.
One day, in the fall of 1995, I was called into the office of my Circuit Judge. He did not say what he wished to see me about. He began by asking me what I was doing on a particular week in November of that year. I told him what I could remember from my schedule. He shook his head and said, "Nope, you're going to Lexington to the Mediation Center of Kentucky and take the class to be a certified civil mediator".
I was less than thrilled, being a sole practicioner, at the prospect of taking a week from my practice to take a class. Especially as I had a case set for trial that week, a case in which I hoped both my client and I would be recovering some money. But, as it was my Circuit Judge who asked, and as the case was set in his Court, I really didn't have much choice.
At the time, mediation was not very common in this area. There were one or two individuals practicing mediation. I had attended one mediation, and though I liked the process, I hadn't thought about using it in more cases. However, my Circuit Judge had more foresight than most. With increasing case loads, the length of time it took to bring a case to trial was increasing. While most cases still settled, most settlements did not take place until very close to the trial date, often on the morning of trial. This was always a frustrating and nerve jarring experience for everyone concerned.
Since that week in 1995, I have had the opportunity to mediate approximately 500 cases. I can not give an accurate figure for the number of cases which have been settled due to mediations I have conducted, because often I have come to learn that a case which did not settle on the day of mediation was resolved within a few days thereafter based on what we did in the mediation session.
A few years later I was asked to mediate a divorce case. At the time the general opinion was that divorce cases could not be mediated. There were very few mediators who would try a divorce case. I wish I could tell you that case settled, but it did not. We were able to resolve one issue regarding visitation. However, I began to see how the mediation process could be effectively applied to divorces. I now mediate divorce cases regularly, and with a high rate of success. I offers the parties the opportunity to have their say, their "day in court", without the pressure of presenting their case to the one individual who will ultimately make some of the most important decisions affecting not only their lives, but the lives of their children, as well.
ADR is a major part of our practice in this office. We offer a professional, but informal means of resolving some of life's most stressing conflicts.