Christine Gilman, Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Center of West Michigan, stands outside the non-profit’s Front Street office.
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
At this time of year thoughts may turn to peace on earth, but people at the Dispute Resolution Center of West Michigan think about how to achieve that all year long.
And they have been doing it for nearly 30 years.
When DRCWM started in 1986, it was the first mediation-based community organization in the state. Then in 1990, as other communities followed suit, legislation created the Community Dispute Resolution Program, which is just finishing up its twenty-fifth year.
According to current DRCWM Executive Director, Chris Gilman, the legislation was spearheaded by then-Representative, later-Court of Appeals Judge Richard Bandstra. It created the program to offer grants for base funding of individual dispute resolution and mediation centers, and keep track of activity and effectiveness. Its current director is Doug Van Epps, and the program operates through the State Court Administrative Office.
The current count of community centers stands at 18, located everywhere from Wayne County to Chippewa County (in Sault Ste. Marie) to Muskegon.
The DRCWM started out covering just Kent County, but now offers services in Ionia, Lake, Mecosta, Montcalm, Newaygo, and Osceola.
From their offices within the large complex at 678 Front Street, a staff of five and a large group of dedicated volunteers not only handle individual mediation cases, but also offer a number of progams tailored to what the DRCWM board has evaluted is needed in the area.
Gilman herself is a former legal aid lawyer. Originally from New Jersey, she graduated from Colby College in Maine, and received her Juris Doctor from Tulane University in New Orleans.
While at Tulane, Gilman met her husband, who is from Michigan. They both wanted to work in the legal services area, and landed positions at Legal Aid of West Michigan.
Gilman followed that up with a job at the Legal Assistance Center. “While I was there, I started to do some mediations. So I was a volunteer — that’s how I initially got involved,” she says.
She started as DRCWM Executive Director about three years ago.
While they are currently looking to hire an additional part-time program manager as well as an administrative assistant, currently employees include two program managers, a law student intern, and part-time facilitators of DRCWM’s Restorative Justice in Schools program.
The bulk of the work is performed by intensively-trained volunteers. “We rely heavily on them,” Gilman says. “They do all the real work; it would be nothing without them.”
Gilman herself spends eight hours a week with Restorative Justice in Schools, including time on-site at Lee Middle School. Tina Murua goes to Kelloggsville Middle School, where the program has been in place for three years, and Marilyn Booker covers Wyoming High School.
As the brochure for the program indicates, traditionally those in authority ask, “Who did it? What rule was broken? What are the consequences?” But Restorative Justice focuses on the facts of what actually happened, turns the traditional question around by trying to determine who was hurt by what happened, and proceeds to figuring out, “How can we repair the harm? How can we stop this from happening again?”
Teachers, administrators, other students, or even the students themselves may ask to be part of the program and participate in a “restorative circle,” a kind of group of those involved in an incident who listen closely to each other. With the aid of the facilitator, the parties work their way through such problems as a fight breaking out or destruction of property and come to their own conclusions about how best to address the problem.
The DRCWM people encourage both affective statements, where people talk directly about how the situation makes them feel (both positively and negatively), and affective questions, which are open-ended invitations to think about what happened, such as, “What do you think you need to do in order to make things right?”
Gilman tells of a restorative circle brought together over the issue of some graffiti on the school’s walls. After some investigation, six students came together to discuss the problem. No one ever admitted the wrongdoing, but they decided as a group to go and scrub it off the walls.
Students who use the program learn conflict resolution skills; moreover, relationships and a supportive community are built through the process.
“The more the school culture can change to encourage productive communication,” says Gilman, “I think the better everyone will be at doing what they’re there for — learning or teaching.”
The meat and potatoes of DRCWM are the day-to-day mediations they do in a variety of legal areas. These include contracts, business-customer issues, neighbor disputes, civil rights, workplace conflicts and employment, special education, parenting and divorce, and landlord-tenant issues, and special education — “It’s one of the best-kept secrets in the nation, that at any point in the special education process the parents or the schools can request mediation,” Gilman says.
DRCWM also mediates on agricultural disputes for the entire state.
The organization was part of a pilot project to look at mediation in criminal misdemeanors through the City of Grand Rapids, and Gilman says, “We’re hoping to move in that direction again.”
Victim-offender mediation requires a lot of skill on the part of the mediator, but DRCWM is capable of rising to the challenge.
Though having a law degree is not a requirement, all volunteer mediators must complete a mediation training course before they apply. They then must complete a hands-on internship, which includes participation in actual mediations. Only after that are they elibible to mediate themselves.
And DRCWM offers its own SCAO-approved mediator trainings, both general civil and domestic. They are often taught by well-known trainer Anne Bachle Fifer, who is also a DRCWM board member, or Robert Wright, featured in these pages.
There will be a 40-hour general civil mediator training March 7-9 and 21-23 at the DRCWM offices; as well as an advanced training Feb. 25.
For more information visit drcwm.org.
Study after study indicates that the parties in a mediation as well as attorneys who use mediation services find it a highly satisfactory experience. A 2008 client surveys done in Kent County indicated that over 90% of mediation participants are satisfied with mediation.
In 2011, judges ordered about 36% of torts and 30% of non-tort civil cases to mediation. On average, a settlement is reached in about 70% of all cases referred by the courts for mediation. (In 2014, 14,725 cases were resolved, and 37,008 people were involved in mediated cases.) A 1999 study by SCAO showed a compliance rate of 90% with settlement agreements.
In addition to the reported healing benefits for many who enter into agreements after mediation, the process cuts back on court costs and reduces the docket, and takes less time for the parties and the courts.
Though DRCWM charges a fee for its services, it is on a sliding scale, so it is often more affordable than traditional litigation.
“I am surprised over and over again by the significant percentage of people who come in here sure that it is a waste of time and it’s not going to work for them, and leave with an ageement in their hands and the case resolved,” observes Gilman. “It’s just amazing how powerful the process is.”
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
