This week I've been working with Marshall Yoder to prepare for a workshop where we will share our experience with mediators throughout the region.  The conference is scheduled for October 9, 2018, in Front Royal, Virginia. Front Royal is a wonderful town to visit in October, the location of the start of the Skyline Drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains!

I’m putting the finishing touches on my breakout session for the RPI conference next week in St. Paul about restorative lawyering. What’s that? Both Dan Van Ness and Howard Zehr describe restorative justice as being a continuum, with some practices fully restorative and others not at all restorative. Most RJ program practices can be placed someplace on that continuum.  I have found that in my everyday practice of law and mediation, my practices may also be placed on that continuum and I work to find the ways to make them more restorative.

Today's blog post is my second about free speech rights for students in school.  My first post addressed what rights the First Amendment guarantees to all citizens and how they may be limited.  Today, I'll move and discuss precisely what limits school officials can place on students in public schools.  (Remember that private schools that do not receive federal funds have different standards!)

With the wave of activism among American’s youth, I find that I’m getting calls from students, and their parents, about what free speech rights students have at school, and outside of school.  In the past, I've been involved in research and litigation involving the free speech.  During law school, I working as a research assistant on the issues of free speech and religion.  The first case that I argued at the West Virginia Supreme Court addressed the free speech right of the student body president to intervene when security officers began arresting students at a football game.  Since then, the laws have changed a little, but the fundamental meaning of the first amendment remains solid.  The government is limited by the First Amendment in when and how it may infringe upon any citizen's right to speak freely.

In my last post, I described my excitement when members of my collaborative practice group worked with a couple to complete the first collaborative divorce in West Virginia.  I explained the benefits, from my perspective as a collaboratively trained attorney. After the hearing, we had a chance to sit down with the parties and talk a little bit about their experience with collaborative divorce.  

Last month I had the great honor to work with a couple who decided to use collaborative law to help them file and finalize their divorce.  In the very first collaborative case in West Virginia involving attorneys trained by IACP and members of a collaborative practice group. Yes, the first one!  And a mere two weeks later, the second case made its way through the courts.

Last week, my daughter, my mother and I took a train ride together. Years ago, my mother added the ride from Toronto to Vancouver to her "bucket list."  After finding a great sale for winter trips, we planned the trip and departed on  January 29, 2018.  Little did I know that I was about to learn a little bit more about what it might feel like to be a litigant in the American legal system.

A friend and fellow mediator, Jeff Molenda, often quotes John R. Van Winkle's book, "Mediation:  A Path Back for the Lost Lawyer."   In the first section of his book, "The Litigation Train," Van Winkle claims that at the end of the twentieth century in the United States our litigation system is broken and has to come resemble a long, expensive train ride.  

After a tragedy, folks often gather to help out those who have suffered, any way  they can.  At one time, we probably would bake casseroles for each other and plan a church service.  Today, one of the things that I've noticed happening is that folks set up a Go Fund Me account to help cover medical or funeral expenses. 

These accounts often raise funds for the victims and may be helpful.  However,  I am concerned that sometimes they may not be as effective as other ways to help the victim or their families.  In fact, in some situations, the accounts may cause further harm to the family.

Restorative Justice provides options for educators in Virginia and West Virginia to improve the classroom environment. Brenda Waugh worked with experts from Harrisonburg, Virginia and Morgantown, West Virginia to create a two day workshop on restorative justice. During the workshop, participants were introduced to victim-offender conferencing and restorative justice talking circles.

I recently traveled to Harrisonburg for the Zehr Institute of Restorative Justice, part of Eastern Mennonite University to participate in a workshop with Howard Zehr and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz. The Institute hosted a group of judges, social workers, and attorneys from Brazil who are working to bring restorative justice into their schools and judicial systems. During their time at EMU, they had the opportunity to visit the Harrisonburg City Schools and the Harrisonburg Police Department and Prince George’s County where they could see RJ in action.

Should I call the police?

A few days I had a call from a father of a family that I’ve been working with in divorce mediation. He wanted to know if he should call the police when his wife did not permit the children to come with him for his custodial time. He wanted to document the problem.

When property is damaged and when we are injured, we should expect that the insurance company will treat us fairly. However, insurance companies do not always treat claimants fairly, and you may want to talk with an attorney to be sure that the insurance company is following the law in responding to your claim. Waugh Law & Mediation works with people who have suffered losses and are seeking compensation from the insurance company.

Contempt of court occurs when a court issues an order requiring that a person (or company) do something, and that person disobeys the court order.  The injured or aggrieved party requests that the court find that person in contempt and take action to ensure compliance with the order. In other words, once the court issues a ruling, so long as that ruling is in effect, anyone who is ordered to do something in the order must do it, or the court may find them in contempt.

The NLADA recently produced a webinar on new child support regulations most of which go into effect this month. The new regulations require that the states make changes in their policies and procedures to improve the processes states use to collect and distribute child support.  They direct a few issues about child support collection that have created problems for some parents. The states are required to make  changes in their guidelines that address incarceration and unemployment among other issues.

Tomorrow I will be joining several colleagues as we travel to Calhoun County, West Virginia for two days to meet with community leaders, education professionals, and law enforcement to discuss the potential applications for restorative justice in the community. 

After you've injured your back or neck in a car wreck, you may be wondering what's wrong with me? Can you feel better? How long will it take? First of all, let me remind you: I am not a physician, and this is a blog post that does not include legal or medical advice. You should always talk to your doctor and design a treatment plan that is best for you. In this post, I’m going to list some of the kinds of treatment that clients in my legal practice have told me that they find helpful for their back and neck injuries.  

January is a popular month to file for divorce.  Why?  For many people, the new year is a time that they reevaluate their lives and decide to make changes.  Perhaps they have waited or tried to make a marriage work for some time and the new year seems like a good opportunity to go ahead and pursue divorce.  Others may want to wait until after Christmas to plan for their a divorce. Some people postpone divorce into the new year for economic or tax reasons.  Whatever the basis, if you have decided to divorce in 2017, should you file?

On December 7, 2016,  I’ll be joining Howard Zehr for a webinar on Restorative Lawyering.  Restorative Lawyering is a model of practicing law that I have been developing along with colleagues such as Marshall Yoder and Susan Marcus.  Restorative lawyering adopts the guiding principles and values of restorative justice.  In doing so, we look at each situation, problem, or conflict and often start by asking,  “Has there been harm that needs to be addressed?” and “What can be done to make right the wrongs?”  These fundamental questions, central to restorative justice, change the focus from what statute or rule has been violated to what can be done to make things better.