This bonanza provides a variety of general and family topics that provide Continuing Education credit for mediators.  Included are two hours of Ethics training which will be presented by the Office of Dispute Resolution.

Topics include:

Facilitated Discussion with Circuit Court Clerks:  Local clerks will discuss current happenings in the circuit court and ways in which mediators can interface effectively to help clients negotiate the court system.  Specific discussion will focus on divorce in Virginia, Motions Day—what is it? and question/answer time with the Circuit Court Clerks.

Legal Conversations – How is collaborative law being used locally for family and civil cases?  In what ways can mediation intersect with collaborative law to benefit both professions and the clients that are served? What are some agreement writing hints and cautions from the legal perspective?  Questions like these and other legal questions from the attendees will be addressed by local collaborative lawyers.

Restorative Justice Initiatives (RJI) – How are mediation principles applied to victim/offender situations?  Fairfield Center has a program specifically to address this question.  Find out what the differences are between RJI and mediation and where they overlap.  Discussion will include how to work with the court system, new frontiers in RJI and case examples. 

Domestic Violence and Mediation: Beyond the Basics – Screening for Domestic Violence happens throughout all stages of the mediation process.  Learn more about how to distinguish between long term violent relationships and relationships with mutual violence.  Various screening methods will be presented as well as strategies for how to deal with these issues in mediation.

Peer Consultation: Peer Consultation allows mediators to meet to talk about difficult cases with which they have worked and to share their successes and their failures. The goal is for the other mediators to learn from you and for them to give you helpful suggestions for handling future difficult cases.  

8 hours total

June 27:  8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Participants may choose to attend only the Ethics training from 12:00-2:00 for a cost of $10.  For more information, please email training@fairfieldcenter.org.  Thanks