THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230248
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Suppose an angry motorist says the repairs on his car didn't solve the problem, and refuses to pay the bill. A towering oak falls on a neighbor's garage. Or longtime residents of company-owned housing are evicted after the business goes bankrupt.
All of these situations could easily wind up in court, but a group of Albemarle residents say there's another avenue that can be less costly.
``It would have been an ideal situation to have mediation,'' said Jean Person, a Currituck County lawyer and promoter of a regional settlement dispute center.
Person and other mediation advocates held an invitation-only awareness session last weekend with about 40 local and state leaders. The group wants to locate a nonprofit mediation center in Currituck County.
``I want to have the primary office in Currituck because it's my home now,'' the Bells Island woman said Monday.
Plans to build a new $4.6 million judicial complex within the next couple of years also make the northeastern county ideal, Person said.
Mediation centers are gaining popularity in North Carolina, she said, with $800,000 appropriated by the General Assembly last year to help fund some 25 centers. The closest one for northeastern residents, however, is in Greenville.
If a mediation center were established here, it would serve counties from Dare to Perquimans. Other county centers could be set up as demand dictates.
After taking time off to raise three children, the 52-year-old Person recently received a law degree from Regents University. Some of her studies included mediation.
``Mediation itself is just simply a process where a trained mediator sits down with two disputants that both volunteer to seek a resolution,'' she said.
``The mediator knows how to question and bring facts out. But disputants formulate and shapethe agreement that is signed.''
In North Carolina, such agreements are reached in 90 to 95 percent of mediated cases. A majority reach a settlement in an average of two hours, Person said.
Person said she proposes that the mediation be at ``no cost or low cost'' to participants, however, the fee will be decided by a 13-member board of directors that is now in place.
It costs $44 just to get a case going in Currituck's small-claims court - the traditional route for such disputes.
``There are a lot of people in this county and the other six counties who simply don't have that kind of money but have disputes that need to be settled,'' she said.
And then there is the cost of time for disputants who must take off from work and the sheriff's deputies who serve warrants, Person said.
``So I see it as a real money-saver for the county and for the taxpayers,'' she said.
Area attorneys, police and judicial workers also endorse the mediation system because it will help reduce caseloads and overcrowded court dockets. Person has approached the Currituck County commissioners about donating office space when the new county complex comes on line.
Person hopes area citizens will see the mediation system as a savings, and will support the regional settlement dispute center through letters, volunteers and financial help the group needs to apply for state funds.
``I see it as an opportunity for a lot of different facets of the community to come together and provide a different kind of brotherhood,'' Person said of the proposed center.
``I just hope a lot of people here catch the vision.'' by CNB