Administrative Office of the Courts Supreme Court of New Mexico Arthur W. Pepin, Director 237 Don Gaspar, Room 25 Patrick T, Simpson, Deputy Director Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 827‐4800 (505) 827‐4824 (fax) www.nmcourts.gov Statewide ADR Commission Summary – June 15, 2012 John E. Brown Juvenile Justice Center, Albuquerque, NM I. Welcome and Introductions Justice Edward Chavez called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. He noted that the ADR Summit was hugely successful. He reported that at the Judicial Conclave he had the opportunity to talk with many of the judges who attended the Summit and that we were ready to move on. The research has been conducted and is in place; we are in a position to adopt guidelines, best practices and rules, and that we can begin a marketing effort. David Smoak has agreed to chair a Marketing subcommittee and the interest is in a proposal to the January 2013 budget committee for a proposal to fund and education DVD for the courts, litigants and others with written materials to accompany the DVD for those who cannot access the technology. Justice Chavez notes that the budget request is due to the AOC by July 7th and to the Budget Committee by August. He also indicated an interest in asking for money to compensate Commissioners for travel expenses. Justice Chavez indicated that we will reconvene or form subcommittees at this meeting and they will meet in July and report back to the Commission at a meeting in August. II. Report from the ADR Summit David Levin reported back from the Summit surveys and from the follow‐up meetings with the Summit Planning Committee, Justice Chavez, and the Ohio guests. From the follow‐up meeting these suggestions emerged: look at local rules; create a pilot project; have another summit with more local participants; decide on a tangible outcome and deliver it; consider a video on mediation. From the Survey, 9 districts asked for assistant; 26 surveys indicating an interest in mediator training; and 24 surveys indicated an interest in help with marketing and connecting with their communities. Handouts are attached to these minutes. Other findings included increasing communicating around the state, possible by having a more inclusive list serve, an expanded website, and/or teleseminars with court staff. III. Meeting Outcomes Three subcommittees were convened: ‐ Standards which will include program standards, mediator qualifications and best practices. ‐ Marketing which will focus on one initial project: produce a DVD to educate courts, attorneys, and litigant about mediation.
‐ Pilot program subcommittee to explore initiating a program with measurable outcomes. ‐ Subcommittee Chairs and Members are listed in the Attachment. Districts that requested assistance on their Summit questionnaires were reviewed and Commissioners in their region were assigned to them. The assignments are: ‐ Celia Ludi, 1st Judicial District ‐ Susan Laughlin, Marsha Lichtenstein – 3rd Judicial District ‐ Justice Chavez – 12th Judicial District ‐ Kevin Spears and David Smoak – 9th Judicial District, including Legal Aid – Matt Rowland ‐ Mari Gish – 7th Judicial District ‐ Sara Stevens – 10th Judicial District ‐ Sara Stevens – 4th Judicial District ‐ Marsha Lichtenstein, Susan Barnes‐Anderson, and Mari Gish – Magistrate Courts A summary of the details of the discussion about the subcommittees and the rest of the agenda items is attached.
IV. V. Next Steps: The three subcommittees will meet in July and report back to the Commission at the meeting in August. Marsha Lichtenstein will coordinate the date and location and email Commissioners and others. Meeting Attendees: Members Present: Justice Edward L. Chavez, Chair Susan Barnes Anderson Darcy Bushnell Judge Duane Castleberry Mari Gish Jeff Griffith Susan Laughlin David Levin, Co‐Chair Celia Ludi David Smoak Sara Stevens Kevin Spears Judge Mark Sanchez John T. Feldman Mary Jo Lujan Members Absent: Bruce Hall Ty Trujillo Paul Briones Fred Sena Donald Schutte Guests: Staff: Laura Bassein Marsha Lichtenstein Geoff Nims Jeanette Martinez Liz Jenkins Philip Crump
Ira Bolnick Susan Malone Sue Thorsen Jean Civikly‐Powell Pauline Artery Attachments: Detailed discussion notes Summary of Summit Surveys
Attachment: June 15 Commission Meeting Minutes: Details of Discussion on new subcommittees and other agenda items. Discussion on Subcommittees Program Standards and Guidelines • Use national standards as the base • Refer this question of whether to use national standards or our own standards to the subcommittees • Judges unaware of existing standards, so get them this information now • Adopt standards and send them out: revisions will be made over time, get feedback on the standards from courts, judges, State Bar, NMMA. Revisions will be made over time as programs evolve • Training requirements: subcommittee needs to address. A piece of this is how much classroom time versus mentoring. Several trainers indicated there are good reasons for the 40 hour training and the topic was not further explicated at this time. • Court to view their existing or new programs through the lens of Recommended Program Standards and report on how and whether their programs match the standards • How to organize ourselves: what is a priority o Standards or best practices – programs and practices o Marketing (emphasis on DVD) o Outcomes – important but not to be dealt with in July o Pilot a program or two and track outcomes • Possibly look at programs that did not succeed as a pilot. Found in 8th JD and in Magistrate Courts • Best Practices: look at each existing program to see compliance with national standards for programs. This would be a step in proposing best practices for programs • Three kinds of programs for pilot: healthy existing programs; programs that are struggling; new initiatives • NMMA has standards for mediators • Pilot programs need the HOWs, and tracking outcomes, and reporting back on a regular basis • Make our deliverables useful – to the courts so they can move forward and to litigants to help them use mediation • Civil program standards as the first step, use Civil mediation as the pilot • Recognize the diversity in the state: rural areas need to be part of whatever we are doing • We started with three standards to address: Mediator Qualifications; Program Standard; and Best Practices for Mediators. At the end of the discussion we agreed to have one subcommittee that is addressing standards and it will begin with
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program standards and them move into mediator standards, both qualifications and best practices. The program standards can apply to all courts or be addressed specifically to civil case mediation: the subcommittee will figure this out.
Marketing • The second committee is Marketing with an initial project of producing the DVD Pilot Programs • The third committee is going to decide on Pilot Programs. Subcommittee Members • The members of the subcommittees are: o Standards: Celia Ludi, chair, Duane Castelberry, Jeff Griffith, Mari Gish, Susuan Barnes‐Anderson, Susan Laughlin, David Levin, Sara Stevens, John Feldman, Ira Bolnick, Laura Bassein o Marketing: David Smoak, chair, Justice Chavez, Kevin Spears, Darcy Bushnell, Marsha Lichtenstein o Pilot Programs: Mark Sanchez, chair, Mari Gish, Sara Stevens, Susan Laughlin, Susan Barnes‐Anderson, Celia Ludi, David Levin, David Smoak, Duane Castleberry • The Commissioners agreed that non‐commission members can serve on the subcommittees • The task of Outcomes will be addressed in the next wave of activities. Currently, Mary Jo Lujan, Susan Barnes‐Anderson, and Darcy Bushnell volunteered at the last Commission meeting to work on Cost/Benefit analyses. At this meeting, Celia Ludi, Mari Gish, Sara Stevens and Justice Chavez indicated interest in being part of this subcommittee. Marsha Lichtenstein is also working with this subcommittee. • Guests attending the meeting commented and a question was asked about whether the Commission’s focus was solely on settlement or did it also include a healing/restorative approach as well. The Commission indicated it had a broad definition of mediation and planned to be inclusive of restorative concepts. • The subcommittees were charged with meeting in July and returning to the Commission’s August meeting with their deliverables. • Court staff training, an item added to the agenda, was not discussed