Dispute Resolution Office Honored

Avis Ridley-Thomas, who runs the South-Central office of the city attorney’s Dispute Resolution Program, has been honored for running the outstanding branch of the citywide program.

County supervisors proclaimed the South-Central office as the best of the 13 dispute-resolution branches that the city attorney’s office runs throughout Los Angeles.

Ridley-Thomas, the wife of City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, is credited with bringing the notion of the dispute-resolution program to the city attorney’s office. While working there as the agency’s only consumer advocate, she proposed a plan in which volunteers would be trained to handle the myriad of disputes in Los Angeles. The program began in 1989.

The program takes complaints and attempts to resolve a range of disputes including those involving neighbors, families, and consumer and discrimination issues.

Volunteers range from police and parole officers to college professors and youth agency directors. They are given 40 hours of mediation training and 100 of supervised case handling before they are certified as mediators.

Anyone needing the services of the Dispute Resolution Program can call (213) 485-8324 or (818) 485-8324.