Virginia's Judicial Settlement Conference Program

Abstract

This article describes the background and development of Virginia's Judicial Settlement Conference program, including court-referred mediation. Court-referred mediation had grown in family and pro se cases, but litigants with attorneys in complex cases tended to use private mediation providers, such as retired judges and attorneys, in lieu of mediators, who were mostly not attorneys. Given the circuit courts' limited referrals to mediation and counsels' expressed need to have experienced neutrals, the Virginia judicial system has explored expanding and redesigning the judicial settlement conference as another dispute resolution option. A group of retired circuit court judges was trained in mediation and settlement-conference techniques and conducts settlement conferences statewide at no cost to the parties. This article also discusses confidentiality and reporting aspects of the program and the reactions of lawyers, parties, and judges to the program.