HANCOCK COUNTY — For families going through legal disputes such as divorce, parental custody or support issues, ending up in court isn’t the only way to settle things.
In an effort to promote alternative resolutions in domestic and family law cases, a group of five domestic relations mediators have agreed to donate their time to provide free mediation services to Hancock County families.
The first Hancock County Mediation Day is set for Wednesday, June 19, and organizers are looking for participants. The family lawyers have eight half-day mediation slots available, five in the morning and three in the afternoon.
Local family attorneys and mediators, Jessica Lacy, Denise Hayden, Jenifer Habecker, Kirk Jocham and George Simpson are all volunteering their time to make the first Hancock Mediation Day a success.
If the program works well, the hope is to hold a Mediation Day twice a year for county families, Lacy said.
Lacy practices family law in Cumberland and around the county and said she often sees how upsetting going to court can be in a domestic case. After watching other counties in the state set up alternative resolution programs, with great success, she wanted to bring the practice to the area.
“Family law cases are not best handled by the courts — meaning the judicial system is really not set up to handle family dynamics.” Lacy said.
Judge Scott Sirk of Hancock Circuit Court and Court Commissioner Cody Combs, who oversee many of the family-law cases have signed off on the idea.
“That’s always a good way to resolve cases,” Sirk said. “As much as we can encourage that kind of settlement, we want to do that.”
Either through mediation or in front of a judge, family members must come to the realization that while they might be a broken family, they’re still a family, Sirk said. Putting children first must be a priority, he added.
The judge thinks Mediation Day can be a positive way to settle issues, but only if the two parties approach it with cooperation and not competition in mind.
“If one side is great and the other side is terrible, it’s going to fail,” Sirk said.
Letting family members have more of a say in how a family issue turns out is better for all parties in a divorce, said Lacy. She thinks that’s what happens when a family chooses to settle their disputes through mediation.
“They can get some real ownership in the final agreement or order that comes out,” Lacy said. “It’s beneficial, and it resolves in better co-parenting relationships.”
Even though Sirk said he personally tries to make all family cases he hears as positive as he can for both sides, Lacy said mediators can give domestic issues a little more time and let family members become even more involved.
“Unfortunately, the judicial systems, the way it is set up tends to put parents in an adversarial position,” Lacy said.
Anyone who has a pending domestic relations case in the county can file a written request with the judge in their case asking to be part of the Mediation Day. Once ordered to Mediation Day, the case will be assigned a mediator and the time slot, and the parties will be notified.
Six of the mediation slots, three in the morning and three in the afternoon, will be conducted at the Lacy Law Office Mediation Center, 11901 E Washington St., Cumberland.
Once all of the meditations are complete, organizers will report back to the Hancock Circuit Court and Hancock Superior Court 1 regarding the outcome.
They’ll tell county officials how many cases were fully resolved, partially resolved, or not resolved.
“Our goal is to have all time slots filled and all cases settled successfully,” Lacy said.
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Anyone who has a pending domestic relations case in the county can file a written request with the judge in their case asking to be part of Mediation Day next week. Once ordered to Mediation Day, the case will be assigned a mediator and the time slot, and the parties will be notified.
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