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7th Distrct appeals court launches mediation program
YOUNGSTOWN
The 7th District Court of Appeals is launching a mediation program designed to resolve civil appeals and to offer an opportunity for a win-win settlement for both parties.
Mediation is a voluntary, confidential process in which a trained mediator seeks to lead parties to a mutually acceptable resolution of a case.
The mediation program here, for which the court will charge no fee to the parties, will cover personal-injury and real-estate cases and contract and employment disputes, among others.
“Hopefully, we have a resolution or a settlement that both parties can live with,” said Judge Gene Donofrio, the court’s presiding judge.
“If this one gives a little and that one gives a little, the chances are that the parties are going to be more willing to abide by it and live with it going forward, especially if a case involves property-line disputes,” Judge Mary DeGenaro said, referring to an advantage to the parties of a mediated outcome of a case.
“They’re masters of their own fate. Everybody has a stake in their own fate. They decide how their fate comes out, instead of having it foisted on them by three judges,” said Judge Cheryl Waite. “They take ownership of their dispute. They take ownership of the outcome,” she added.
“It empowers them. People are empowered to control their own destiny,” through mediation, said Judge Carol Robb. “Nobody knows their individual situation better than they do,” she added.
Though judges may be limited to a few isolated legal issues in making a decision, parties in mediation “can come together knowing their entire personal situation and they can come to a whole resolution, and it’s on their own terms and more-specific than anything a court is likely to be able to address,” Judge Robb observed.
The neutral and impartial mediator identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each side’s case and tries to guide the parties to a negotiated settlement both sides can accept, rather than having the case terminated by judicial orders.
Normally, a three-judge panel of the appeals court decides a case based on its review of the trial-court record and legal arguments made by the parties.
With the Ohio Supreme Court typically accepting fewer than 5 percent of cases appealed to it, the appeals court is the last stop for most appeals.
“This is probably their very last opportunity to exercise any kind of control over how their case is going to be resolved,” Aaron Hively, who will be the court’s mediator, said of the appeals court mediation program.
This means the parties have a strong incentive to reach a mutually acceptable settlement, rather than taking the risks associated with a resolution by a decision from a three-judge appeals court panel, Hively said.
Mediation, which expedites case resolution and gives the parties more control over the outcome, may be recommended by a court mediator or requested by the parties in a case.
Judge Donofrio said resolving a case through mediation also reduces litigation costs, including legal fees, and can prevent long-standing grudges that might stem from a court decision that identifies a winner and a loser.
“There are also, sometimes, issues between the parties that haven’t been litigated yet that we can resolve in mediation,” Hively said. “That’s called a global resolution,” he added.
Hively, who was an East Palestine police officer for three years during the 1990s and underwent 10 days of Ohio Supreme Court-sponsored mediation training last year, was a full-time appeals-court staff attorney for 17 years.
Hively’s newly created position pays $84,000 a year and is funded by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Hively, a 1993 graduate of Youngstown State University and a 1999 graduate of the University of Akron School of Law, will conduct the first mediation session today.
The Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals has four judges, who handle criminal and civil appeals from trial court decisions in eight Ohio counties.
Civil appeals constitute about 58 percent of its caseload.
About 400 new cases are filed with the appeals court annually, said Jeffrey Hendrickson, court administrator.
Having recently upgraded its website, the court offers mediation instructions and forms for download on that site, www.seventh.courts.state.oh.us.
The court covers Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, Mahoning, Monroe and Noble counties.
The 7th District Court’s effort is the state’s ninth appeals-court mediation program.