Welcome to Skagit County

May 25th, 2007

WASHINGTON DISPUTE RESOLUTION CENTERS RECEIVE STATE FUNDS

MOUNT VERNON - Skagit County Mediation Services is one of the 19 community dispute resolution centers in Washington that will receive financial support from the Washington Legislature in the 2007/2009 biennium.

This is the first time in 20 years that the legislature has provided funding for dispute resolution centers and shows Washington's commitment to guaranteeing that all of its citizens have access to a low-cost alternative to litigation.

Governor Chris Gregoire says "Dispute resolution can be an effective way to bring all parties to the table in search of a common goal - a solution to a problem. Thank you to Washington's dispute resolution centers for their work to build strong communities through mediation and conflict resolution training."

Resolution Washington, the statewide association of dispute resolution centers, has worked tirelessly over the last year to educate lawmakers about this valuable community resource. Community dispute resolution centers (DRCs) provide low-cost mediation and conflict resolution services for a wide variety of disputes including: divorce and parenting plans, asset division, business/consumer issues, neighborhood conflict, parent/teen conflict, employment disputes, victim/offender reconciliation, landlord/tenant problems, elder care issues, and group mediation. Many DRCs provide mediators in small claims court as an alternative to litigation and find that people who mediate their disputes keep their agreements more than twice as often as people who litigate their disputes. Statewide, dispute resolution centers served almost 58,000 people in 2006 and saved the courts an estimated $1 million

Mediation works!

For more information on Resolution Washington go to: http://www.resolutionwa.org