Gainesville Rotary speaker lauds use of mediation to settle civil disputes

GAINESVILLE - On the eve of the largest intercollegiate mediation tournament in the world, a Georgia trial and appellate court judge from Gainesville said Monday the alternate form of dispute resolution "can usually create better outcomes than trials" in resolving civil disputes.<br /> <br /> Speaking to the Gainesville Rotary Club, former Georgia Appeals Court Judge J.D. Smith said that mediation and its cousin, arbitration, are both expanding as methods of choice for resolving civil disputes in the United States and abroad because they lead to quicker results at less expense to all parties than lengthy trials in traditional courtrooms.<br /> <br /> "Mediation for me is satisfying because you get to hammer out some kind of shared solutions that both sides can live with," Smith said. "You are getting to decisions and solutions that you are never going to achieve with a judge and a jury in a courtroom."<br /> <br /> The audience at the Rotary meeting included Dr. Kenneth Frank, who heads the Brenau University Conflict Resolution & Legal Studies Department and six student members of the Brenau team that will participate Nov. 6-8 in the 15th Annual International Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament on the Brenau campus. The tournament features more than 50 teams from colleges and universities across the country as well as universities from Canada, India and the United Kingdom.<br /> <br /> The tournament is sanctioned by the International Academy of Dispute Resolution, the professional organization for one of the fastest-growing segments of the legal profession. The Brenau-based event marks only the second time the national intercollegiate competition has occurred outside of Chicago or Des Moines, Iowa, where the intercollegiate mediation competition originated. The previous time was in 2012, also on the Brenau.<br /> <br /> Judge Smith served for 21 years as a judge on Georgia's second-highest court. Previously he had been chief judge of the Superior Courts of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, which includes Dawson and Hall counties. However, since his retirement in 2011, he has largely avoided courtrooms

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