by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
The days of holding mediations in law offices may be over.
Florida Coastal School of Law (FCSL) is in the process of opening a Dispute Resolution Center on the school’s campus. The center will be open to the public to be used for mediations, a now popular alternative to going to trial.
“We’re evaluating the pros and cons and putting together a business plan,” said Dean of Florida Coastal School of Law Peter Goplerud. “Our first step is to make the space available for folks in the legal community to meet in a neutral setting.”
Goplerud is aware that there isn’t any adequate space in Jacksonville’s court houses to open a mediation center and thought having a center at the school will benefit both students and the legal community.
“A lot of mediations are occurring in law offices right now and that is not a neutral space,” he said. “With some experience as a mediator, a neutral setting helps.”
FCSL has a space on the fourth floor of their campus on Baypine Road that features a conference room, two adjacent offices — one for each party and their counsel — and an office for an executive director.
“Everybody meets together in the conference room and then they will split up and use the two offices and the mediator can go back and forth,” he said.
Computers, a copying machine and printer will also be available in the center for use by the parties.
“This (a Dispute Resolution Center) has been in our thinking for several years,” said Goplerud.
The concept was brought to Goplerud’s attention by Audrey Moran who is a certified mediator and on the school’s board of advisors. She recently was named president and CEO of the Sulzbacher Center.
Moran said there were two main reasons why she saw it was important to have a Dispute Resolution Center at FCSL. Like Goplerud, she said one reason was for the local legal community and the other for the students at FCSL.
“There is a real need for a neutral meeting space in Jacksonville,” she said. “The courthouses lack space even though each and every civil case is ordered to mediation.
“We also want to make sure our students are exposed to mediations, because it is becoming more popular and all cases of any significance go to mediation so it is an absolutely critical practice.”
Once the center gets going, Goplerud said the school will expand their current mediation program so that the students will have the opportunity to learn mediation skills in the center.
“We offer mediation and alternative dispute courses already, but once we get going, we’ll have the students complete a survey about (what they want to see) at the center,” he said.
There are a number of schools around the country who have dispute resolution centers in the school, said Goplerud. But they are currently reviewing whether or not there are other law schools in Florida who have Dispute Resolution Centers.
“We feel there is a definite need for a mediation center as well as a mediation training,” he said. “It gives us the opportunity to educate our students and to reach out to the local legal community.”
Goplerud explained what mediation is and why it is becoming so popular.
“In Northeast Florida, every case filed in both state and federal courts is subject to mediation requirements,” he said. “It is a way to reach a settlement much more quickly and more economically than going to trial.
“But mediations don’t always work and they end up going to trial anyway.”
In recent years courts have been embracing mediation.
“Mediation generally is a loosely structured negotiation process, ultimately leading towards a settlement,” he said. “The mediator serves as a neutral party and presents the issues in a way both parties can understand.”
Goplerud added that the purpose of using a mediator is that it brings a complete neutral person into the case.
“They (mediators) are not professionally, emotionally or financially involved in the case,” he said.
FCSL is in the preliminary stages of opening their Dispute Resolution Center, but Goplerud said the space is there and available for mediations.
“We already have a mediation scheduled for later this month,” he said.
If attorneys would like to use the center for mediations and want to set up a date and time, they are asked to call Denise Sacco, executive assistant to the dean, at 680-7706.
Mediators will not be provided by the school. Goplerud said the parties select their own mediator. The cost to use the Dispute Resolution Center is still being decided.