Mediation faces test in Cook County

Alternative may cut courts' load

May 17, 2004|By Ameet Sachdev, Tribune staff reporter.

Andy Andrikos had not talked to his business partner in a year.

They were tied up in a messy court battle over how to dissolve their physical therapy business. Andrikos had already spent about $50,000 in attorneys fees and other legal costs, and there was no solution in sight.

His attorney suggested mediation. After two meetings earlier this year, Andrikos and his partner came to a peaceful settlement and celebrated by going out for a beer.

"Afterwards, I went to the mediator and kissed her hand," said Andrikos, a 53-year-old Highland Park resident. "Usually I'm not an emotional kind of guy. Just ask my wife."

Mediation has slowly gained traction in Illinois as another way to resolve legal disputes, but it now faces its biggest test.

Last month the Circuit Court of Cook County, the largest court system in the state, began a mediation program for civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages of more than $30,000.

Potentially thousands of cases, from personal-injury claims to product liability lawsuits, could be diverted to mediation instead of being contested in court. If a majority of cases are settled this way, mediation could become mainstream in the Chicago legal environment, saving individuals and businesses the time and costs of trials.

Moreover, it could bring relief to a court system oversaturated with cases.

Lawyers on both sides of the aisle are cautiously optimistic.

"We want to see how it works," said Kevin Conway, a plaintiffs lawyer and incoming president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. "It may take a year or two to find out."

Said Michael Conway, who defends businesses in legal disputes, "My sense from people practicing is that there isn't overwhelming demand for mediation. But clients are always better off exploring settlement before they devote a lot of resources to litigation."

Cook County became the 10th circuit in the state to adopt court-sponsored mediation, following neighboring counties such as Will, DuPage, Lake and Kane. In the early 1990s the Illinois Supreme Court gave its OK for local courts to set up programs where a third party, known as a neutral or mediator, works with parties to resolve their conflicts.

Before that, private mediators, usually retired judges or lawyers in private practice, or not-for-profit institutions, such as Chicago's Center for Conflict Resolution, worked behind the scenes to settle issues from neighbor disputes to workplace conflicts.

Still, mediation has been slow to catch on in Illinois. The Center for Conflict Resolution mediates about 2,000 cases a year for free--as it did with Andrikos' case.

By comparison, more than 2.4 million suits are filed annually in Cook County courts.

Some lawyers and judges do not trust mediation.

The mistrust was famously summed up in 1996 by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Moses W. Harrison II, who said alternative dispute resolution methods, such as arbitration and mediation in civil matters, "threaten to destroy the very system that is the very basis of our profession."

He went on: "I know that we need some means to dispose of cases, but I don't believe that sitting around trying to talk things over is an adequate substitute for formal proceedings governed by rules of evidence and presided over by an experienced judge."

Yet court-sponsored mediation works more often than not. Since 1993, of the nearly 2,000 mediated cases in five counties--Will, DuPage, Lake, Kane and Winnebago--about 60 percent were settled, according to the Center for Analysis of Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems.

"Parties are more satisfied when they reach their own outcome," said Susan Kozacik Rodgers, executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution. "Mediation can also preserve an ongoing relationship."

And the cost savings can be large. Andrikos said a trial would have cost him an additional $100,000.

In Cook County, litigants typically pay mediators $250 an hour. Sessions typically last a day or two but sometimes can extend much longer.

The mediator can be chosen by a judge or selected by the parties.

While it remains to be seen how effective court-sponsored mediation will be in Cook County, the program has stirred interest in the process. The Center for Conflict Resolution, which also trains mediators, has received numerous calls from lawyers looking to become mediators, Rodgers said.

Initially the court is referring cases that are seeking large damage awards or are likely to involve several witnesses and lengthy trials, said Circuit Judge Allen S. Goldberg, who led a 60-member committee that spent more than nine months drafting rules governing mediation.

"We aren't looking to replace jury trials or judges presiding over settlement conferences," he said. "This is just another tool we have to resolve disputes."