COMMON GROUND: Mediation Day offers free help with legal disputes

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Jessica Lacy

HANCOCK COUNTY — People locked in legal disputes have an alternative to settling cases rather than taking an issue to court. It’s called the Mediation Day program.

This year, organizers are expanding the list of disputes that can now be heard and settled out of court. As part of the annual program, mediators do the work pro bono in an effort to save people the expense and the time that often result from protracted legal battles.

Mediation Day is set to start Thursday, Oct. 1, and the program runs through Monday, Nov. 30. Individuals and families facing disputes such as divorce, parental custody, estate settlements, support issues and civil entanglements including personal injury lawsuits may seek mediation as a way to settle their cases.

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Jessica Lacy
Jessica Lacy

Local attorney Jessica Lacy is once again spearheading the county’s Mediation Day, which is entering its third year with the blessing of county court officials. When she first designed the program, she modeled it after one in Marion County that deals strictly with paternity issues.

While that program is a one-day event during which dozens of legal volunteers handle multiple cases, the county’s Mediation Day program is spread out over several weeks, giving residents a better chance to solve family and civil issues without heading to court.

“We feel like it’s a good program,” Lacy said. “We think we can handle several cases.”

Court Commissioner Cody Coombs, who hears many civil and family issues in the county courts, thinks it’s great Lacy has set up this type of program in the community. He was thrilled to learn many county attorneys are willing to volunteer their time to make the program a success.

“It is important for local attorneys to give back to the community where they can, and Mediation Day gives attorneys that extra avenue for pro bono service to the community,” Coombs said.

The mediators will work with an adjusted scheduled, even handling sessions electronically due to COVID-19, if attorneys and party members feel that’s a good option.

“Doing it this way, we can work anywhere,” Lacy said. “So instead of doing a day, we can do days where an attorney helping one day can maybe do the mediation the next week.”

Lacy will be working with nine attorney volunteers. Five are able to do domestic or family law mediations; two will work as civil mediators; and two are cross-trained to be civil and family mediators.

“Once someone is referred to the program or calls us and tells us they need our help, we’ll organize things as soon as we figure out the nature of the case,” Lacy said.

Coombs said he’ll recommend as many cases as he can for mediation and was glad to see Lacy has added civil cases to the list of issues they’re willing to work on.

“There are many small-claims matters that could benefit from a Mediation Day option, and I plan to look at the docket to determine which cases are best situated for a Mediation Day referral,” he said.

While the vast majority of unrepresented family law cases settle before a final dissolution hearing or at the final hearing, Coombs said very few of those cases are contested at the early stages of the case.

“I don’t know if that’s because parties do not know there are programs like Mediation Day available or if the parties feel too intimidated to argue their cases at those initial stages,” Coombs said.

Coombs noted unrepresented parties tend to have more contested hearings after their final dissolution hearing because they find something in their agreement doesn’t work or one of the parties won’t follow the terms of the agreement.

The court is in a much better position to refer those types of cases to the Mediation Day program because judges can see specifically where the parties are having issues. Plus, the Mediation Day option will help free up space on the courts’ docket, Coombs said.

Other than the filing fee in the county courts, there aren’t really many fees the court collects on a family law case, so the local courts aren’t losing in funding recommending Mediation Day.

“Most expenses that are incurred in a low-income family law case come from the parties’ division of the marital estate and child support, so I do not see the court’s ability to collect fees as an issue in these cases,” Coombs said.

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Anyone interesting in getting a family or civil issues settled through mediation should reach out to the law office of Jessica Lacy by calling 317-894-1500 and ask about the Mediation Day program.

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