State Judges Learning to Mediate

Twenty-eight trial judges out of 100 in the state will be certified as mediators by the end of this week. They’re going through 40-hours of training at Lipscomb University’s Institute for Conflict Management.

With more and more cases resolved outside the courtroom, judges are seeing fewer and fewer trials. The State’s Chief Justice William Barker says judges should be taking on additional roles as mediators, especially since they can cost as much as 500-dollars an hour to hire.

“The taxpayers are getting a bigger bang for their buck if judges can be mediators and additionally be judges. And it will help the general public who make the decision, not that they are going to be forced to do anything, but if they choose, they can have a judge act as their mediator.”

Beyond the certification, Barker says the training is necessary because judges are programmed to make decisions, not foster negotiation.

The administrative office of the courts in Tennessee began keeping record of how many cases end up in mediation just this year. Since January 1st, 15-hundred cases have resulted in mediation. Roughly a third deal with divorce, followed closely by personal injury cases. Nearly three-fourths of all the cases sent to a mediator ended with at least some of the issues resolved outside of court.