and Bernard Dempsey, Executive Director of the Wayne Mediation Center
Many courts throughout Michigan have discovered that mediation
is an efficient and effective way to manage their contested dockets. Mediation has been shown to be an especially successful
tool in resolving cases that involve ongoing relationships between the parties,
as is generally the case in probate and family cases.
One clear example of the proven success of mediation in saving
a busy court and the parties valuable time and resources, as well as improved
outcomes, can be found in the long-time collaboration between the Wayne County
Probate Court and the Wayne County Dispute Resolution Center/Wayne Mediation
Center (“Center”).
Thanks to the leadership of the Wayne County Probate Court[1]
and the collaboration they formed with the Center over 20 years ago, mediation has
been a tried-and-true solution for resolving contested probate cases for hundreds
of families in Wayne County. In fact, in the last 11 years, an average of
52 contested cases have been resolved in mediation either fully or in part each
year after being referred by the Wayne County Probate Court.
Of these cases, slightly over one-third were child
guardianship disputes, just under one-third were adult guardianship issues, and
just over one-third were deceased estate issues. Although every case sent to mediation has not
been resolved successfully, more than 60 percent of those mediated ended in a
written agreement on the day of mediation, and many more established an
understanding and repaired communication lines sufficient to allow a settlement
soon thereafter.
Mediation is particularly well-suited for such probate
disputes for a number of reasons. Wayne County Probate Court Chief Judge Milton
L Mack, Jr., often said that probate is “the other family court,” where the
parties are still family when the proceedings are over. Parties come to probate
court often at the worst of times; when a loved one has recently died, become
incapacitated or a child is left without close family in need of a guardian or
conservator.
Mediation by an independent, neutral mediator is often
essential to breaking through any underlying family dynamics or history and in reaching
a fair and equitable result in ways a court often never can. A settlement reached amid such private family
matters after mediation is often more helpful and binding than any ordered
resolution forced upon the parties by the court.
A final essential reason for the success of mediation in
probate cases is because resolving these disputes often requires that the
parties work together to execute the steps that they will be tasked to
undertake in the future.
Once the underlying issues are effectively addressed in
mediation, then critical steps toward building trust and better communication
paths can be established, and the parties become capable of navigating the
issues that previously led to their breakdown in communication and ability to
work together. This makes it less likely that the parties will need to return
to court to resolve a disagreement in the future.
For all of these important reasons, the more than 20-year
collaboration between the Wayne County Probate Court and its local dispute
resolution center has saved significant resources and provided better outcomes
for many families in Wayne County. Significantly,
the success of this collaboration is not at all unique in Michigan, as similar impact
has also been achieved in many other courts in partnership with their local
community dispute resolution center.
We highly recommend that any Court that has not yet
discovered mediation contact their local dispute resolution center to learn how
they can begin to save time, money, and relationships in their county. Click
here to find your nearest mediation center.
Bernard Dempsey has
been the executive director of the Wayne Mediation Center since 2010. Before becoming a mediator, Bern was a legal
services lawyer and manager. He has
taught several law school clinics and classes.
[1]
The Wayne County Probate Court is the largest Probate Court in Michigan
handling nearly a third of all the probate filings in the State.