The programs have been very successful, and it is likely that this program will expand significantly in the years to come. Plans are already underway to include more law students and students at our Master of Arts in Teaching program as trainers and administrators of this program. It is the hope of the school district and the CDR that, within the next two or three years, every student in Salem will use a CDR-sponsored mediation program in their school as their first choice method for resolving conflict. On a county-wide level, we are working with the Marion County Family Court Mediators to help them work with their clients to create better, more durable agreements between divorcing parents. All divorcing parents must participate in a court-ordered mediation program before they can have a hearing about issues of custody or support.
Many cases settle in mediation.
On a state-wide level, the CDR is working closely with the Department of Justice to help the hundreds of attorneys who perform all the state legal business to choose effectively among all the lawyering processes that exist to help resolve their clients' conflicts. In the past academic year, CDR conducted a survey of all the lawyers and paralegals in the DOJ from Pendleton to Medford to Salem to Portland. We are working with the information collected to design a training program for each person in the office that will minimally impact their ability to carry out their duties while the training is going on, but will maximize their effectiveness as Assistant Attorneys General after the program is complete. A research effort will commence after the training to analyze the effectiveness of our efforts. Without input from practitioners, academics may create theories that are of no practical use.