Transcendental mediation.

• Author: Cooper, Brian
• Position: Demand for dispute resolution services of lawyers in North Carolina

Once you hear Gary Jackson discuss the increasing use of mediation to settle disputes in North Carolina, it's hard to believe he's a lawyer.

"Mediation often better serves the client because there's so much litigation that's wasteful," says Jackson, a partner at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Winston-Salem. "In many cases, mediation can decide disputes much more expeditiously and fairly."

Jackson isn't alone in his views. Although mediation's primary goal is to keep money out of lawyers' pockets, the push for better ways to settle disputes is spreading among the state's 11,000 lawyers. Even the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers is supporting mediation efforts, though the plaintiff lawyers' group stresses that the right to a trial must remain sacrosanct.

Cynics would say it's been a long time coming, given that it's been a spell since a country lawyer named Abe Lincoln advised: "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser -- in fees, expenses and waste of time."

One hundred fifty years later, there's a serious effort in North Carolina to try mediation, in which significant cases are settled privately in a conference led by a state-certified mediator. Instead of adversarial battles in which clear winners and losers emerge after lengthy, costly investigations, mediation is supposed to lead to solutions that satisfy both parties while saving money. The mediator's bill -- usually $75 to $100 an hour -- is split by the two parties. No judgment is imposed, and in most cases the plaintiff and defendant -- who must attend the mediation session with their lawyers -- reach agreement without going to trial. Only when major points of law are at issue do cases generally revert to the courtroom.

"Some mediators are more passive than others, but basically they serve as discussion leaders who keep the negotiations going," says Winburne King III, a Greensboro lawyer who's been involved in several mediated settlements. "Sometimes it gets to be like shuttle diplomacy, with the mediator running back and forth between two rooms with offers."

Eight judicial districts in 13 counties are testing mediation in a program designed by the North Carolina Bar Association and approved by the General Assembly in 1991. Under the four-year pilot program, superior-court judges must refer most civil lawsuits to a mediator. The state isn't spending any money on the...