Charlottesville, Mar 2009
A weak economy and dwindling personal
finances have impacted when and how married couples get
a divorce in the Charlottesville area. Local mediation
groups and lawyers have reported changes in how often
couples seek mediation to draft a separation agreement
and how long they'll wait before filing for divorce. The
Mediation Center of Charlottesville has seen an increase
in the number of couples wanting to use mediation to
draft agreements - mediation is significantly cheaper
thank taking a divorce case to court.
Between July and December of 2008, the
nonprofit center handled 2.1 self-referred mediations
per month for couples who wanted to split. Since the
start of 2009, the center is averaging five
self-referred mediations a month.
Twin Cities Daily Planet
February 08, 2009
A new Court of Appeals mediation program
for family law cases is saving thousands of dollars for
the litigants and for the court. About half of the first
twenty cases to go through the program were successfully
settled, according to John Kostouros, director of the
state court information office. That saves the cost of
transcripts (which run to hundreds of dollars), of
lawyers' fees, and of court and judicial time. (Other
cases are still making their way through the mediation
process.)
The pilot program for mediation in
family law cases was launched in the September 2008. The
Family Law Appellate Mediation program is funded for a
one year trial period, through a $30,000 grant from the
State Justice Institute for technical assistance,
training mediators, design and development and
evaluation. More...
www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2009/02/08/court-appeals-testing-new-mediation-process.html
