Virginia’s
Judicial Settlement Conference Program
Geetha
Ravindra
This article describes the background and development of
Virginia
’s Judicial Settlement Conference program, including court-referred mediation.
Court-referred mediation had grown in family and pro se cases, but litigants
with attorneys in complex cases tended to use private mediation providers, such
as retired judges and attorneys, in lieu of mediators, who were mostly not
attorneys. Given the circuit courts’ limited referrals to mediation and
counsels’ expressed need to have experienced neutrals, the
Virginia
judicial system has explored expanding and redesigning the judicial settlement
conference as another dispute-resolution option. A group of retired circuit
court judges was trained in mediation and settlement-conference techniques and
conduct settlement conferences statewide at no cost to the parties. This article
also discusses confidentiality and reporting aspects of the program are
discussed and the reactions of lawyers, parties, and judges to the program.
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