All Parties Advised To Settle Up Attorneys, Mediators Try To Bust Legal Logjam

Attorneys dropped their roles as advocates Tuesday to help opposing sides reach amicable agreements and avoid the cost and strain of civil trials.

More than two dozen attorneys and two professional mediators have volunteered their time to Settlement Week, an annual event aimed at cutting the crowded calendar in Kootenai County.

Several have signed up to cover the equivalent of a day’s worth of mediation hearings free.

“There’s a logjam in the civil system right now,” said Ruth Fullwiler, an attorney and bench-bar liaison for Settlement Week. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to participate.”

Civil cases, which must be scheduled around criminal cases, regularly wait two years to go to trial. Some can take four or five years.

All of the cases chosen for mediation were nominated by attorneys or judges. Once accepted for Settlement Week, the judge presiding over the case required it to go through mediation.

Each is assigned a two-hour time slot and a mediator to encourage negotiations. Cases selected for mediation include personal injury cases, divorces, business disputes, and a small claims appeal.

Judges are available throughout the day to make settlements official and clear the cases from the civil calendar.

Cases that do not settle during their allotted time slots frequently still get resolved short of trial, Fullwiler said.

“A mediator can bring someone else’s perspective in and let them see the other side,” Fullwiler said.

Settlement Week began Monday and continues the rest of the week.

The program was started in 1991, and 54 cases were nominated for mediation that year.

Only six were turned away and 20 settled before trial.

Those numbers grew to 162 nominations last year, 107 cases mediated and 69 settled.

This year, mediators are expected to hear 125 cases.

Janell Burke, who helped launch the program, said mediation allows opponents in a lawsuit flexibility in resolving their differences. Taking the case to trial produces rigid solutions mandated by law.

“Sometimes they just want an apology,” Burke said.