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 2nd,
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).