Chicago, Illinois, May 17, 2004

FVLD assists in drafting new Cook County mediation rules

The legal system in Cook County is changing – dramatically for the better.

Over the past year, I have had the honor of working side-by-side with several judges in Cook County, and several distinguished members of the bar, representing nearly every facet of cases heard by the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, in a Chicago Bar Association Committee to draft new mediation rules to assist parties in resolving their disputes. On April 5, 2004, our Committee’s vision was implemented as new "Local Rule 20: Major Case Court-Annexed Civil Mediation." Local Rule 20 is now the law in our Circuit.

Local Rule 20, as approved by the Illinois Supreme Court, was the product of many hours of study, debate and crafting of guidelines necessary for a process that many attorneys had heard of, but few have seriously explored with their clients as a means of resolving disputes short of a trial. With Judge William D. Maddux, presiding judge of the Law Division, and Judge Allen S. Goldberg leading the charge, our rules and credentialing subcommittees set upon the challenge of drafting rules that would allow a judge to order parties and their counsel (even those who might otherwise be reluctant to do so) to mediate their dispute before proceeding further in court.

While mediation is a non-binding process, the success rate for parties that participated in mediation reportedly is over 60%. Considering that less than 4% of cases ever go to trial, learning when to economically settle a dispute is critical.

I was honored to be the scrivener for the rules and attended both sub-committees’ meetings to prepare a draft set of rules for our Committee’s further discussion. My experience working with our leading jurists and other members of the bar in debating and developing Rule 20 was challenging and, ultimately, extremely rewarding. After the proposed rules were drafted, my role in recent weeks as part of the Court’s Mediation Rules Advisory Committee was to answer questions on how to implement the rules and to work with the Court’s clerks to develop appropriate forms to guide that implementation.

It is with this premise, that FVLD attaches a copy of a recent Chicago Lawyer article wherein Dan Graham was interviewed regarding the development of mediation and the Rules in Cook County. If you have any questions regarding Rule 20 (a copy of which is located online at www.cookcountycourt.org/divisions/lawdivision), or mediation in general, please do not hesitate to call.

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