What is mediation?:  Mediation is a voluntary process in which two or more parties meet with a trained neutral mediator and together find a solution resolving their problem. Mediators have no decision making authority, and they do not render case evaluations. Instead, they are trained to assist the parties themselves in achieving resolution. There are 20 CDRP Centers in the State of Michigan.

Mediation Statistics:

Total core cases (cases that are mediated with our without agreement) for Marquette Alger Resolution Service decreased by 11% in 2007. Core cases decreased from 294 in 2006 to 264 in 2007. This decrease was directly related to a reduction in small claims cases at Marquette District Court.

In 2007, of the 246 cases mediated, 163 were mediated to agreement or partial agreement and 80 were mediated without agreement. 66% of cases are therefore mediated to full or partial agreement. 2 cases were facilitated.    

REFERRALS:

Referrals from the Courts decreased this year. This is due to a reduction in filings for small claims with Marquette District Court. Mediators are available each Wednesday to hear small claims cases in Marquette. This partnership began in September of 2004 and initially dramatically increased our Court referrals.

Other referrals were made by the courts, government agencies, legal organizations, educational institutions, schools, self referrals and community organizations.

 DISPUTE TYPES:

 MARS also continued to see an increase in  Landlord/Tenant and Contract disputes as a result of our mediations at Small Claims. A majority of cases heard in District Court are Contract and Landlord/Tenant and therefore reflect this increase in dispute types. We expect this trend to continue in 2008.  The highest dispute type that MARS has is in the area of contracts. This category covers a wide area of issues and includes disputes with banks, consumers and merchants, payday loan establishments and other types of consumer disputes. We also saw a significant increase in the Domestic Relations (Divorce) area. The dispute type comparison for 2007 is listed below.

 Number of Individuals Served in 2007 –

 576 individuals were served in 2007.

 Number of Children involved in mediation cases-

 120 children were served as an indirect result of mediation in 2007.  

 Days from Intake to Disposition:

 The number of days from intake to disposition is calculated by counting the number of days from the time the referral is made to the day the mediation is held. The Average number of days from intake to disposition from 1998-2007 are listed below.

Permanency planning mediation (PPM)  program

 Marquette and Alger Counties have provided PPM since 1999. The program is administered through MARS in cooperation with the Family Court, The Prosecutor’s office and the Department of Human Services. This program is designed to improve child welfare processes and outcomes using facilitated mediation in some child abuse and neglect matters that come before the court.  Although not every mediation session deals directly with the child’s placement, the name for this type of mediation reflects the ultimate goal of the program, which is to facilitate a process which can lead to a determination of a safe, permanent home for children in a timely manner. The case statistics for the PPM program for 2007 are as follows:

 Number of Cases:                              4

 Mediated to agreement:                    4

 Number of Individuals Served:         30

Number of Children Involved:          5

 Board Membership:

Mars currently has 10 board members. Hon. Michael Anderegg, Probate Judge for Marquette County is the current MARS Board president. The Mars board is made up of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Current members are practicing attorneys, Judges, human services directors, business owners and professors. The Mars board met 8 times in 2007. On average, 8 board members attended each meeting, with some traveling from Alger County for the meetings.

Training:

6 MARS mediators attended Special Education Mediator training in the Fall of 2007. MARS now has 7 mediators trained to mediate special ed cases and IEP facilitation.

 2 MARS mediators attended the Access and Visitation mediator training in Lansing in September 2007.

MEDIATOR TIME:

32 MARS mediators volunteered for a total of over 485 hours in 2007. Based on a state assigned rate value of $150.00 per hour, this equals nearly $73,000 in in-kind time donated to the Center. This proves that we have an overwhelming commitment to this process by our mediators.