Berkshire Mediation Services has been providing mediation services to the courts since 1998, when the agency was approved by a court initiated process of screening. Reapplication in 2001 also resulted in BMS being an approved program of the courts.
Mediation services are offered by on-site BMS personnel in the District Courts in North Adams and Great Barrington, with mediation being offered in Small Claims cases in both courts, and Criminal Show Cause in North Adams. In Pittsfield, Juvenile Court CHINS (Children in Need of Service) cases are screened for appropriateness and willingness to mediate and then referred for mediation by BMS for half the cases. In Probate and Family Court, BMS offers a monthly orientation session for couples seeking to ease the acrimony that often accompanies divorce.
Court-based mediation, especially in Small Claims Courts, has given students who have taken our Basic Mediation training a place to practice the art, to become fully competent by having a mentoring experience with our senior Court Coordinators, who staff these courts. We consider on-going experience an essential part of growing mediators who can fully participate in this new field.
In the past few years, we have had five staff members train in Permanency Mediation, a specialized form of mediation and case management that facilitates the placement of children who have been removed from their homes and have become wards of the state into permanent homes. Two of our staff have completed the required mentoring process that allows them to provide these services as the need arises.
Our training capacity for court-based mediation has expanded from a simple five hour training for Small Claims Court and three hours of Ethical Standards for mediators who were trained before Ethical Standards was incorporated into Basic Mediation Training, to include Parent/Child Mediation, using the transformative model of mediation and, this past fall, Divorce Mediation Training. The Divorce Mediation Training is our most ambitious to date, as we used local lawyers, identified through networking and through one of our board members who is a lawyer. The training was well received with accolades for our lawyer presenters.
We usually provide 130-140 mediations in the courts each year.
