Dispute Resolution Section June 1998 Newsletter Articles

 

Report from the Tennessee Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission
by Ann Barker, director

Section News by Newton Allen, Chair

Students at Hume-Fogg Try Mediation
by Tanya N. Ballard, Tennessean staff writer

The Tennessee ADRC has been in place almost two and one-half years. During that time it has struggled over questions regarding training, mediator credentials, ethics in mediation, and the role of the advocate during mediation. Many of its decisions have been codified in Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 as amended.
The commission has been focused on developing a viable mediation presence in Tennessee courts. To that end, it approved mediation training courses that met a specified curriculum, distributed training information, and worked with the Tennessee Judicial Conference to encourage referrals of cases to mediation.
As of May 15, a total of 431 mediators have been approved as Rule 31 Neutrals. Of these, 254 were approved as general civil mediators, 77 were approved as family mediators, and 100 were approved for both general civil and family cases.
The commission recently published a brochure on mediation that is being distributed to the court clerks. It is designed for litigants to acquaint them with the process and to encourage them to consider using mediation. The brochure, as well as approved training information, will soon be available on TBALink®. We encourage you to freely download and distribute the brochure.
Those of you who have been approved as Rule 31 mediators will receive a notice in the fall regarding renewal. In addition to a renewal fee of $100, we will be seeking statistical data from you regarding the number of Rule 31 mediations you have completed. Increased empirical data concerning the number of referrals to mediation and the number of mediations completed is a major goal of the commission. We need your assistance to confirm or disprove our feeling that mediation is alive and well and growing in Tennessee.
The next step for the commission is to develop a set of protocols for the other ADR techniques listed in Rule 31. To this end, the commission has been meeting to discuss the extent to which the remaining techniques require specific training or credentials. The commission anticipates finalizing this part of the rule by the end of the year.
A recent development in Rule 31 mediation is a pilot project in the Western Grand Division. Justice Janice Holder, who is the court liaison with the commission, has established a mediation project for workers compensation cases from that division that are pending before the Supreme Court. She recently sent a letter to all Rule 31 mediators residing in the Western Grand Division inviting them to participate in the pilot as volunteers. Her invitation was enthusiastically received and the pilot is up and running.
Approximately 24 cases will be selected for mediation with a view to resolve the cases prior to oral argument. Attorneys in the cases will be given the list of volunteer mediators, and will be assigned a mediator if they cannot agree on one.
Questions concerning the appropriateness of a case for mediation will be resolved by conference call.

The Dispute Resolution Section has had a good year. The section is composed of approximately 135 members of the Tennessee Bar Association, many of whom have been approved as Rule 31 mediators by the Commission on Alternative Dispute Resolution. On December 3, 10, and 17, 1997, the section piggybacked on the TBA’s Products Liability CLE seminars addressing the reasons for mediating a product liability case. The seminar was held in Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. Newton P. Allen presented the mediation portion of the seminar in Memphis, David K. Taylor presented the mediation portion in Nashville and Patricia Best Vital presented the mediation portion in Knoxville.
The second annual forum presented by the Dispute Resolution Section, entitled “Mediation and Arbitration Forum” was held in Nashville on May 15, 1998. The speakers were: Patricia A. Collier, the ADR Coordinator of the Federal Court; Newton P. Allen, Memphis, “The Advantages of Mediation and Highlights of Rule 31;” Patricia Best Vital, Chattanooga, “Mediation in Context of Managed Care in Nursing Homes;” Hayden Lait, Memphis, “Pre-Suit Mediation;” Judge James F. Russell, Circuit Court, Memphis, “Mediation and Arbitration: Some Advantages and Disadvantages of Each”; Sherry H. Goodwin and Lucinda Smith, Nashville, “Family Mediation: Some Problems and Answers;” Carl A. Pierce, University of Tennessee Professor, Knoxville, “The Proposed Tennessee Code of Responsibility;” Sandy Garrett, Nashville, “Ethical Problems.”
Patricia Best Vital, chair-elect of the section, will become the chair at the conclusion of the section’s meeting at the Annual TBA Convention in Nashville. Elections of other officers will also be held.

Students at Hume-Fogg High School have found another way to solve schoolyard tiffs - peer mediation.
Last fall, Nashville attorney David Taylor taught students how to mediate disputes. He set up a program at the high school, and hopes the idea will catch on in the rest of the school system.
“What this program is attempting to do is to anticipate those little disputes and have high school students themselves be the mediators and talk to those parties who have a problem to try and defuse the situation.”
Hume-Fogg’s program is part of an initiative by the American Bar Association to get lawyers - who are experienced in negotiation and mediation - to share their skills and help students find nonviolent ways to resolve conflict.
“It gives both kids the opportunity to say what the problem is, why they are angry or upset, and the kids brainstorm together to solve it,” said Angela Hubbard, a Hume-Fogg teacher who coordinated the mediation program. “The gun is not the answer; fighting is not the answer.”
Hit lists aren’t the answer either, so in Robertson County, where a middle school student was found with one such list two weeks ago, STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand) is the answer.

Anger management is just one of the focuses of the 17-year-old national organization, whose mission is to help students avoid drug and alcohol use, and refrain from violence.
“Kids feel entitled to be violent because it gets tolerated by adults and peers,” said Rodger Dinwiddle, executive director of STARS. “It’s not OK to write death lists, it’s not OK to write a note saying ‘I’m going to kill.’ It’s not OK.” The program used at Greenbrier High School made students accountable for their behavior by requiring them to write their infraction on a card and sign it. The card is then filed in the office.
“It made the student and the faculty member accountable for the behavior the student had displayed,” guidance counselor Margaret Ann Williams said. “They are required to complete a worksheet on the consequences of their actions and they are asked to assess their behavior - why did they react the way they reacted, how could they prevent their reaction, what would they do differently, what did they learn from this experience.
This requires everybody to take responsibility. Student, parent, teacher and administrators.”

Copyrighted by The Tennessean
May 26, 1998