Lawyers Back Plan to Trim Legal Costs

Representatives of two major Bar associations joined a state senator Wednesday in support of proposed legislation that seemingly could cost California attorneys both money and clients.

Under the measure, introduced by state Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and co-sponsored by the State Bar of California and the 17,000-member Los Angeles County Bar Assn., the state would offer funds for neighborhood centers to resolve disputes outside of courtrooms.

Garamendi said he expects strong bipartisan support of the bill in Sacramento, especially because the legislation is the legal community’s idea. “We believe it will be an investment in a cost-saving mechanism that will save . . . tens of millions of dollars,” he said at a county courthouse news conference called to promote Senate Bill 1215.

Patricia Phillips, president of the county Bar Assn., said the establishment of mediation centers would provide people with a quick, efficient and low-cost means of settling disputes among themselves.

The bill offered by Garamendi is fashioned after similar legislation approved four years ago in New York, where 38 centers serving 43 of the state’s 63 counties handle up to 70,000 contacts and referrals a year and mediate about 17,000 disputes. It calls for appropriation of $2.5 million to provide grants to local nonprofit organizations for dispute resolution centers.

Lee R. Petillon, co-chairman of the county Bar’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Center, noted in a prepared statement that New York lawyers apparently have no complaints about losing clients to the centers because the typical case is “not economic” for them to handle.

Under terms of the Garamendi bill, the state would provide 50% of the funding for locally controlled dispute resolution centers. It also would establish a seven-member Neighborhood Resolution Commission to oversee operation of the centers.