WEST VIRGINIA STATE BAR TRAINS WVU COLLEGE OF LAW STUDENTS TO MEDIATE CASES IN MAGISTRATE COURT

West Virginia State Bar trains WVU College of Law students to help lighten the load on county Magistrates.

February 2, 2013—Morgantown, W. V.—The West Virginia State Bar, in cooperation with the WVU College of Law and the West Virginia College of Law Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) Society provided mediation training for approximately 35 law students on February 2^nd, 2013. The training, hosted at the WVU College of Law, leveraged the skills of attorney volunteers Mike McDowell, Michael Safcsak, Joan Rose, Brian Corcoran, and Jonathan Board, members of the West Virginia State Bar ADR Committee, Debra Scudiere and Professor Tom Patrick, as well as Harrison County Magistrate Tammy Marple and Monongalia County Magistrate Clerk Caroline Stoker and current and former student mediators, Jaime Ritton, Marianne Monthe, Ashlee Preece, Jeremy Cooper, Camron Tenney, and Alicia Lauderman, to provide training and coaching for WVU law students at the all-day event.

Once trained, students receive a certificate from the State Bar and can mediate cases in the Magistrate Courts in Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Upshur counties. Mediation is a process where a neutral third party, the mediator, assists the parties to a dispute in negotiating a mutually beneficial agreement. If an agreement is reached, then the case need not be adjudicated.

In 2005, members of the West Virginia State Bar “realized that law students had a strong desire to give back to the community and gain practical, hands-on legal experience,” said Shannon Smith, former chair of the Magistrate Court Mediation Subcommittee of the ADR Committee of the West Virginia State Bar. Since then, the students mediate about 40 cases per month in local county Magistrate Courts.

Mediations take place in each of the four participating counties once per month. Students and local attorney volunteers travel to the counties and mediate cases in the late afternoon. Mediation is also a significant part of Circuit Court proceedings. In West Virginia Circuit Courts, mediation is required in most civil matters.

The West Virginia State Bar’s ADR Committee focuses on building the base of attorneys in West Virginia who have skills in the area of mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. The mediation training available to law students helps to further the Committee’s goals, while also providing community service and skills training opportunities to the students.

The ADR Society is a student organization dedicated to promoting student interest in ADR at the West Virginia University College of Law. The Society helps students gain an understanding of and promote the use of ADR as an effective alternative to litigation. The Society provides students with the opportunity to hear from prominent ADR experts in the field and to organize and participate in local mediation trainings and competitions. Additionally, the group is instrumental in maintaining the Magistrate Court mediation program in West Virginia by organizing and volunteering for monthly mediation.

To learn more about the Alternative Dispute Resolution Society at the WVU College of Law, please contact Alicia Lauderman (alauderm@mix.wvu.edu). To learn more about the West Virginia State Bar’s ADR Committee, please contact Debra Scudiere (dscudiere@kaycasto.com).