Friday, July 09, 1999
Mediation project wins Clermont courts $74,180
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA — The Supreme Court of Ohio awarded a two-year $74,180 grant to Clermont County for a civil court mediation program, and said a key reason was the county's willingness to start the program even after being rejected for funding two years ago.
The goal is to encourage civil-case litigants to resolve their disputes without trials. The county's success rate since 1997 has been 70 percent.
Clermont is one of 10 counties to get a share of the $812,688 grant, and the only Southwest Ohio county selected. Sixty percent to 70 percent of the 137 cases handled so far in Clermont have been personal injury complaints, according to Margaret Porter, the attorney who has mediated cases since 1997.
Cases also include worker compensation claims and malpractice and contract disputes. Domestic-dispute civil cases and criminal matters aren't eligible.
Since 1991, the number of mediation programs in Ohio increased from 11 to 121, and will grow to 146 before the end of 1999. A Supreme Court survey showed that 69 percent of cases were settled without trials.
Of the 10 counties selected this year, four, including Clermont, had existing programs they wanted to expand, said Crevon Tarrance, program manager for the Supreme Court in Columbus.
In 1997, with the common pleas court's application having been rejected for the Supreme Court program, Clermont commissioners approved a mediator position. But it was part-time and only one judge, William Walker, participated. Ms. Porter had no staff, doing all paperwork and administrative duties herself. The next year, Judges Robert Ringland and Jerry McBride joined.
This year's $37,090 installment, to be paid in reimbursements beginning Aug. 15, will fund a support staff job.
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