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.

With the threats to our health and communities imposed by Covid-19, many people are concerned that they don’t have a will. Even more concerning, many do not have a Medical Directive or a Power of Attorney. While you may run into difficulty getting documents witnessed or notarized, some forms are readily available online and FREE. Some just need to be witnessed, not notarized! Be sure to investigate these resources before you pay for a fill in the blank form online!

Last Friday, I attended a webinar produced by the American Bar Association on ODR, Online Dispute Resolution. The participants included Colin Rule of Tyler Technologies, Amy Schmitz a Professor of the University of Missouri, and Professor David Larson of Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Speakers addressed several important topics about Online Dispute Resolution that help me in moving much of my mediation practice online in the coming weeks.

Online mediation provides litigants another option to resolve disputes when in person meetings are not possible. Waugh Law & Mediation has been provided this option for several years. Using their smartphone, tablet, or computer, participants log on and participate in the mediation virtually. Brenda is a licensed attorney in West Virginia, Virginia and the District of Columbia. She provides mediation in many areas including civil cases, family issues, small business, and employment matters.

The training brings together groups of experienced lawyer-mediators, faculty from West Virginia University, and new mediators, interested in learning the skills and methods to be able to help litigants find common ground. This year, the program will be in Flatwoods, West Virginia, over two days: June 17 and 18. I’m excited to be working with Professor Will Rhee of WVU to assist him in creating the morning session that will provide introductory concepts to the attendees.

I’ve spoken at dozens of workshops and taught courses in law schools and in a master’s program. At least two recordings of my work are readily available to help clients determine the best lawyer, mediator or facilitator to meet their needs.

While our office does not offer free consultations in family law matters, we work to provide information about divorce, custody, parenting plans, and support in our offices in Leesburg and Charles Town. Sign up for a free session to have questions answered, for free, by lawyer and mediator, Brenda Waugh.

The Joint Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, comprising members of The Virginia Bar Association and Virginia State Bar published their quarterly newsletter this week and have included my short article on restorative justice. The article describes one case when I witnessed an offender apologize, sparking my interest in what was then referred to as Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP). It was a pleasure it is for me to share this experience and my own education on the topic with the extended alternative dispute resolution professionals in the Commonwealth.

Arbitration requires that the parties allow a neutral third party to make a decision, without due process protections, and usually is ‘binding” to require that the parties give up their right to go to court and agree to accept an opinion by a third party, who could be described as a “private judge.” Since some businesses, employers and consumer contracts require arbitration, I am including it in the series.

I have been on the road a lot this month! I really enjoyed a workshop with the Virginia Mediation Network in late September on The Alternatives in Alternative Dispute Resolution. In early October I had the pleasure of participating in a symposium on Restorative Justice at the University of Richmond. But today, I’m returning to my series on the options in Alternative Dispute Resolution. Today, I am going to address a few options, in more general terms. Some are early in development, and I have not fully described them. Others involve processes that many practitioners do not include under the ADR Umbrella.