Plead or go to trial? You may have more options. Lawyers representing youth charged with crimes may learn more about restorative justice, restorative practices and mediation by attending an upcoming virtual workshop, part of West Virginia Public Defender’s 2022 boot camp.

What are our legal rights at work in West Virginia? When we work for someone else, a person, a company, or the government, for wages we have certain rights. Generally, they fall into categories of payment of wages, benefits, a safe work environment, a right to organize, and the obligation of the employer to refrain from discriminatory actions.

Restorative Justice is a way of looking at wrong doing through a new lens. Rather than focusing on rules and sanctions, turning to wrongdoing and healing. One of the most familiar processes associated with restorative justice is a facilitated conference between an offender who has accepted responsibility for wrongdoing and a victim who wants to participate in such a process. Another process associated with restorative justice is the talking circle where the participants in a process sit in a circle and discuss ideas suggested by the facilitator, or the keeper of the circle. This process allows for all participants to have the opportunity to participate in the discussion equally. Talking circles also maximize opportunities for listening.

“I just want to know why they did this….and for them to say that they are sorry.” In the late 1990s victims of crimes often expressed these basic needs to me during my work as an assistant prosecutor. But while I could prosecute offenders and obtain convictions, I could not give victims these two things.

Around the same time, I first learned about “restorative justice” – a different way to address criminal wrongdoing. For example, restorative justice facilitates meetings between criminal and victim. While this then-new approach appeared to provide greater potential for victims to have their needs met, I was skeptical at first. I was concerned that introducing such techniques might result in making things easier for the offender, or would not adequately protect the victim.

Covid-19 vaccinations may be required by businesses and employers. Schools are suggesting that they may require students to have a vaccination. In this article, we address-can they do that?

The moratorium has been extended by the CDC prohibiting evictions for non-payment of rent through June, 2021. Waugh Law & Mediation is providing free online mediation services to landlords and tenants, subject to availability, through May 31, 2021.

Eviction protections for tenants are scheduled to expire at the end of March. Landlords and tenants want to save time and money, particularly when addressing this difficult situation. Mediation may provide the best option to prevent eviction and find a way to keep tenants in the housing and landlords receiving rent payments.

When eviction seems inevitable, landlords and tenants can save time and money by going to mediation. In mediation, unpaid rent, damages and rights afforded under the Covid 19 relief efforts may be discussed. Waugh Law and Mediation provides affordable mediation in Virginia and West Virginia

When clients want to avoid spending a lot of time and money in litigation, Early Neutral Evaluation provides a good option to resolve the case, fairly. In Early Neutral Evaluation, a neutral specially trained attorney evaluates the factual and legal issues in the civil case to arrive at a valuation. Early Neutral Evaluation may be employed in any civil case, including personal injury and small business matters.

We help small businesses resolve conflicts without incurring significant expenses and spending a lot of time in court. As a mediation attorney and mediator, we provide for mediation in the workplace. Whether you are interested in evaluative mediation or a more facilitative model, we have the skill to meet your needs.

What should you do after a car accident? Are you looking for an accident lawyer near you? Do you have questions about car accident injury settlement amounts? Are you worried because the insurance company refuses to pay your auto claim? Do you wonder, "should I get an attorney after a car accident?" These are complicated questions that can be difficult to answer.

During the pandemic and the resulting surge in unemployment, many parents are finding that they have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced. These parents are having trouble making ends meet and are often unable to keep up with child support payments.

Child support payment obligations that have been ordered by the court do not stop when a parent becomes unemployed. They only stop when a court changes an order that required support. Today’s blog post is going to address what a parent can do to stop the obligation when they are in Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Whether I am working as a lawyer or as a mediator, clients should expect that all of our communications are confidential. This expectation applies to meetings over the telephone, in the office, or via video conference.

When I first began using video conferencing about ten years ago, we usually used Skype. However, I found it to be full of bugs and often impossible to sustain any long conversations without interruptions. We tried Adobe Connect and Google Hang-Out to help with courses I was teaching at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peace. By 2015, I was working with the Virginia Mediation Network to organize regular webinars. Fortunately, the colleague that I was working with, Brian Gumm, taught me about zoom.us, and I’ve been a devoted user.

Zoom is much easier than the other platforms I explored. I’ve found it to be a great way to have online meetings with clients and colleagues as well as to conduct mediations. To preserve the privacy of the meeting, we follow specific procedures.

Most families with children who we work with in mediation and in collaborative representation decide to co-parent after divorce. As I write this blog post, we are continuing to live in an unprecedented public health crisis posed by the social distancing requirements imposed by the spread of Covid-19. This has created logistical issues when families are spread between two households. Challenges imposed by distance learning and parents unexpectedly working from home are creating stress and difficulties. Is co-parenting still possible in this situation? It is possible, and it may be the best way to continue to nurture the emotional well-being of your children. I’ve been working with some parents in ODR (online dispute resolution), and they have articulated a few guidelines that have been helpful to them.

With the economy changing so quickly, many readers find themselves in a situation when they need legal or mediation services, but cannot afford them. What can be done? In today’s post, I’ll cover three ways that legal services and mediation services may be provided in Virginia and West Virginia, pro bono, low bono, and on a sliding fee.