 Okay, we're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech Hawaii. We're talking about Community Matters this morning with Tracy Wilkin. And she is the Executive Director of the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Thank you for joining us, Tracy Wilkin. Really appreciate it. Happy to be here, Jay. Thanks for having me. The title of our show is about the Access to Justice Program, which we just discussed with C.J. Mark Rectonwald just a few minutes ago. It's one of his most important and favorite programs, yeah. And you're having a ceremony coming soon, or we're going to give awards to people who've been involved in the program. So let's get a handle on what the program does, what the awards are like, what the ceremony's like. Let's start with what is access to judgment in Hawaii? Access to Justice is providing the legal resources for people in the low-income population who can't afford it. Everybody is entitled to have representation and to be able to navigate a very confusing legal system, particularly for people who aren't accustomed to being in the legal system. And so many, many people have a challenging time accessing justice. And for that reason, the Access to Justice Commission, the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission was created a little more than 10 years ago. It's going on 11 years and it's thanks to the dedication of many people who volunteered thousands of hours and the leadership of Chief Justice Mark Rectonwald that it's grown and made a huge difference. And so each year we have a pro bono celebration that you referred to. And the purpose of the celebration is to recognize all of the people and the many lawyers who've dedicated hours donating their time to assist people in the low-income population so that they do have access to justice. So how do you provide, first, how do you determine who an appropriate beneficiary is? I mean, who is somebody that this program Access to Justice wants to target as a beneficiary? Where is he or she? What's the demographic? So the demographic is there's many, many people. It's people who are indigent or in the very low income population. And in Hawaii, that's a large number of people, probably even more so now, since many people are without jobs or have been furloughed. And the key areas, Jay, where Access to Justice is needed most is in the domestic arena. So couples getting divorced who don't understand the law and how a judge might divide property or what they need to do. Unmarried couples with children who they're not going to be a couple, but they still need to work out time sharing arrangements and focus on the needs of their kids. Landlord tenant is a big, big area. Tenants oftentimes have no idea what their rights are under the law. And this is a really big issue in particular right now. So these are areas, and even in small claims, consumer merchant cases. So these are the areas of greatest need where people in the low income population, people who, English is not their primary language, immigrants who've come over, they're trying to work hard to earn a living and they don't understand our laws. These are the people who are served by legal aid, volunteer legal services, and the many civil legal service providers who are involved in this work. You know, I know it wouldn't apply in every case, but at least it seems to me that in some cases, the judge can handle this. The people come before him, he can see that they're, you know, not experienced, they don't have a lot of contact with the law, they don't know what to do. So he can talk to them. Why doesn't that happen? And the family court judges do that, don't they? You know, that they sort of give special consideration to people who are ignorant of the law? Sure. They can talk to people and family court judges do, and the district court judges do as well. But it's important to remember that the judge can't provide legal advice and take sides and advocate for somebody, even though they recognize that this person may not have the information that they need. Judges refer these individuals out to the resources that they need to help them navigate the system. So certainly judges encourage people to go out and get the information. And that's why a lot of cases are actually referred to mediation as well. Let's talk about mediation. You're the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Mediation is a very kindly, altruistic word. It bespeaks of let us reason together, the most noble, the highest way of human engagement. We have a dispute, let us reason together. We'll put our dispute aside and find a solution that works for everybody. It's a wonderful notion. I don't know if it works all the time, but it's a wonderful aspiration anyway. Tell us about the Mediation Center of the Pacific. And I loved how you described it. And you're right, it doesn't always work. But let me tell you, the Mediation Center of the Pacific is a non-profit organization. So we're one of the civil legal service providers who provide affordable and accessible mediation and dispute resolution services. So mediation has really grown. And so people with financial resources can select a mediator and pay a per hour fee at the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Our services are affordable and accessible to everyone. So through mediation, we bring people together at a time that's mutually agreeable and working with an impartial mediator who helps them listen to each other in a way they haven't been able to and helps them negotiate agreements that work for them. Now, what's important in access to justice and mediation, Jay, is that, number one, we encourage people to go out and get the information they need. So we work closely with volunteer legal services, legal aid, domestic violence action center. We're encouraging people to access these resources so they're informed when they're negotiating, since we don't get legal advice. It's a much more relaxed setting. And what's really important is that the people in the mediation make their own decisions. The mediator doesn't decide for them. So if they're able to reach an agreement, we help them put it into writing. But if they don't reach an agreement, then they can go back next step and go back to court. And even if they don't reach an agreement, because you're right, it doesn't work in every situation. What we hear from people and also judges who hear the cases is that the people are more focused. They have a better understanding of what they need, how to present their case. So mediation is invaluable when people reach agreements, but it can also help people be more focused on how to move forward and be realistic about what it is they're trying to achieve. Permit me a digression. Sure. What makes a good mediator? Not everybody in the world is a good mediator. There are human qualities. What are they? Absolutely. So a good mediator, first and foremost, you have to be a great listener. Now that may seem silly that everybody listens, but most people don't listen carefully. Mediators are trained to listen very deeply to understand what's really driving people. And when you are in a conflict and you're upset, most of us don't know what's driving us. And mediators listen very carefully to hear what's really driving people to bring that out and to help people listen to each other. Mediators also are extremely patient to know when they can move people, when people are ready for negotiation or when they still need to be heard a little bit longer. Mediators need to be very flexible and they need to be effective in helping people negotiate their own solutions. And I think this is really key, Jay. So mediation is a process. I can teach you a process. I can teach you the skills, but the art is helping people come up with their own ideas and resolve it themselves. That's when people walk away feeling really satisfied. You've answered my second question, which was Tracy. How does a mediator resolve disputes? You've answered that. So it's part of being a mediator to resolve disputes. Yeah. So here we are. We have these various organizations that are interested in access to justice. They go out into the community. They have people. They have staffs. But you have certain pro bono volunteers who participate in that. Who are they? Are they all lawyers or are they someone else too? And exactly what do these volunteers do to breathe life into access to justice? That's a great question. And depending on what organization it is, they can be attorneys, but many of them so for the Mediation Center of the Pacific and the other community Mediation Centers across the state. We are volunteers from a broad background, not just lawyers, but let me go back. So legal aid and volunteer legal services have pro bono attorneys. So they're attorneys who are donating their time to help represent clients to provide workshops and training. So for example, volunteer legal services has regular workshops for divorcing couples to help them understand the paperwork to help them understand the laws that govern the divorce arena. These attorneys who are conducting these workshops are volunteering their time. They also have attorneys who represent clients at no cost to the client as does legal aid with the Mediation Center of the Pacific and other Mediation Centers. We have attorneys, but we also have non attorneys who are mediators and they volunteer thousands of hours throughout the year. And trust me, without the people who volunteer for all our organizations, we wouldn't be able to serve the thousands of people that we do each year, making a big difference in our community. Yeah, why did they do that? Why did they do that? You know, I'm going to speak from my experience, but later I know before the pro bono celebration, you're going to have some of these volunteers on your show. You can ask them yourself. But what I hear from them is they want to give back to the community. They believe in increasing access to justice and they believe that they have a responsibility with the knowledge and the skills that they have to be able to make this difference and give back. For those of us who are fortunate, we have full-time jobs. We've been fortunate to go to school and have academic degrees and have this knowledge. It's important to share that and volunteers also say that in addition to giving back, they learn a lot themselves. So there's a little bit of selfishness. Volunteers aren't selfish, but every time you help someone, there's definitely a reward for yourself to know that you've made a difference in someone's life. Yeah, that's great. That kind of gratification doesn't come easy and you have to put in to get that gratification. So I was going to ask you, what do they do? Do they go to court? Is anything and everything, or are they specialized in one function or another? For example, a legal age society lawyer seems to me, they're going to go to court. But what are these other organizations more along the lines of mediation or even just talking to people and they don't necessarily go to court? So how do you deploy the talent, so to speak? Okay, so there's a lot of different pro bono opportunities and pro bono work going on. So I've talked about mediation. We have a cadre of approximately 125 mediators who volunteer their services as mediators, legal aid and volunteer legal services, domestic violence action center, the disability rights center, the native Hawaiian legal corporation and others have attorneys who actually provide representation for clients at no cost. There's also an access to justice self help desk at district court, as well as at family court. And that those access to justice self help desk have volunteer attorneys who are there providing legal advice at no cost for individuals accessing those courts. So at the district court, there's individual attorneys, law firms also adopt the access to justice self help desk at district court for a month. Attorneys from their law firm will be available to answer questions to individuals who filed cases there and who don't know how to navigate the paperwork or have legal questions. Same thing at family court and most of those will all of the ones at family court are all family law attorneys who are volunteering their time to be able to answer questions for individuals. And this is a huge, huge benefit to the community because as I said, there's thousands of people that access the courts that are overwhelmed by it. They don't know where to go. And by having these attorneys available to answer their questions, it helps them navigate a difficult system. It helps them move forward. You also have volunteer settlement masters. This is at family court. These are family law attorneys who use some mediation skills and their subject matter expertise to help couples that it's who are really having a hard time reaching agreements. And they're just about to go to trial. So right before the motion to set and a volunteer settlement master will work with them if they volunteer their time to see if they can help them negotiate agreements and settle. There's also an appellate mediation program through the judiciary center for alternative dispute resolution. They volunteer their time as mediators. And those are at the appellate court level. So again, trying to help people resolve their issues so they don't have to fight in court. They can save money and it's not so overwhelming. So all of these programs they're investing hundreds of hours to make a difference. So there's a lot of different volunteer opportunities that are going on. And we continue to try and increase that. And that's why we have the pro bono celebration. So we recognize those who are volunteering their time. So they know that they're appreciated and to encourage others to volunteer their time as well. Well, let's talk about that. So how do I qualify for the celebration? How do I qualify to get an award at the celebration? So we are recognizing all of the volunteer attorneys who help at the access to justice self help desk both at district court and family court. We are acknowledging all the volunteers who help with the volunteer settlement master program and all the volunteers who assist with the appellate mediation program. In addition to that each of the legal service providers and that's domestic violence action center, the legal aid society of Hawaii, volunteer legal services, the elder law program at the University of Hawaii, native Hawaiian legal core and the mediation center of the Pacific. Each organization looks at their pool of volunteers. And as an organization decides who we're going to honor this year, so we each select somebody and then that person is honored. The other thing that the pro bono celebration does is several years ago, we started having an essay contest for students to encourage students to be thinking about the importance of volunteering and we receive a couple hundred entries and we select seven student winners who will also be recognized through the pro bono celebration. Yeah, let's talk about that. So this is an essay contest and it's in class. What kind of class would it be? And would it be in English? Would it be in social studies? Where would it be in high school? Truthfully, it can be in any class. We don't focus on the class. We get the word out to the schools. We get the word out to all the teachers. So sometimes it could be an English class. Sometimes it could be a political science class. It varies. Sometimes students take the initiative themselves. We do provide an award. We have very generous law firms who donate $600 awards so the students receive a $500 award and the teacher who assists that student receives a $100 award. That's a great idea. Yeah, it's wonderful and the the essays of the students are absolutely amazing. It's really difficult. Let's talk about them Tracy. I'd like to hear some of the subjects they pick and how well they do on it. Well, we have a theme. So each year we provide a theme and usually it's around, you know, what inspires you to volunteer? How do you encourage other people to volunteer? This year's theme focuses on volunteering while keeping social distancing, which is a bigger challenge. So their essays are going to be very interesting and the students will tell us stories, how they've encouraged other students to volunteer. They share their personal stories about how they volunteered. Everything from helping in nursing homes to beach cleanups to helping another student learn English and their stories vary broadly and they're very heartwarming and compelling and it helps you know, it reminds you that there's a lot of good things going on with our youth who are the next leaders. Well, let's talk about that too. The way you answer my questions shows how good a listener you are. Well, I hope so since I'm a mediator. I figured that. So these kids, this generation of kids, let's say the kids in high school right now, the kids who would write these essays right now and presumably some of them get awards and come down to your ceremony, your virtual ceremony as the case may be. It will be virtual this year. So do they tell you that, I mean, does this speak of a generation of volunteerism? I mean, I like to think, and I may be wrong, but I like to think that Hawaii has a certain special sauce about volunteering, that people are so empathetic and sympathetic, they care about the community, they care about their fellow human being and we have more caring than most places. Therefore, we have more volunteering. Am I right about that or am I just dreaming on that point? Yeah, fortunately, you're not dreaming. You're absolutely right and that's part of why we're so fortunate to live in Hawaii and the students are amazing and a lot of it comes from the schools they attend. A lot of the schools have volunteer opportunities, encourage them to do volunteer services. A lot of the students have been inspired by their own family members who volunteer and so you're absolutely right. It's part of our culture. Even people when they don't have much, they're still willing to give and that is something that's very special about the people who live in Hawaii. We have to hold on to that. This program with the essays, that is a way to hold on to it, to nurture that thought and to encourage them not only to observe it, but be part of it. Absolutely. So let's talk about the program itself. There's a ceremony and in other times the ceremony would be physical, everybody be in the same ballroom, what have you, but not this year for obvious reasons. How are you going to organize this? I guess it's in October. How are you going to organize it? Correct. So we've been doing a lot of thinking about this. Generally it's held at the Supreme Court with the Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice Rectonwald and 150 people filling the room and unfortunately we won't be able to do that, but we really wanted to still hold this celebration because of the importance of volunteerism and to continue to encourage people and youth to volunteer. So as we thought through, how do we highlight this important program and the work that these volunteers are doing? We decided through media and so fortunately to wonderful people like you who will give us the opportunity to be on Think Tech to highlight some of our volunteers in October to have Chief Justice Rectonwald the head of the Hawaii State Bar Association be presenting via Think Tech so lots of people will be able to still enjoy that celebration. We're also looking at different articles to highlight the volunteers and the students. There'll be a bigger spread in the Hawaii State Bar Association Journal. We're reaching out to other print media and hopefully they'll be willing to give us a couple pages as well. Yeah, PS by the way we do have a website. We have various blogs on the website links to blogs and we would be delighted to post some of those essays as you see fit so people could find them there and take a look at them and understand more about what these kids are thinking and doing. So okay so now you've given awards to all the pro bono people. I mean it's organization by organization specialty by specialty. They come and get awards sometimes law firms give give money but you still have to have a staff don't you? You still have to have a commission right access to judgment commission foundation whatever it is. How are you funding these activities? So the access to justice commission is strictly a volunteer commission so everybody on it is volunteering their time and they're very dedicated and there is multiple subcommittees that meet when the commission isn't meeting doing hundreds of hours of work. I have to say Jay you know I've been I'm not part of the commission but I'm on some of the committees and over the years the level of work and the commitment and the progress that's been made has been impressive and so it's completely volunteer. How do we do the pro bono celebration? It's again people donating money so law firms donate the awards for the students and the Hawaii Justice Foundation, the Hawaii Bar Association and the Hawaii Bar Foundation have provided funding that has enabled us originally we would fly students over we won't be doing that now but it'll help us with some of the the media exposure that we want to get. So we've been very fortunate that it's strictly donations grants and a lot of volunteer time. You know this is something we talked about with the CJ just last hour and that is the need to have the public confident of the system and I mean more than just judicial things I mean the legislature I mean the courts in general I mean the executive branch and all the departments but you know it strikes me and we talked about this in the time of COVID it becomes all the more important to have the public confident of the system. You talked about people who are you know in the headlights when they when they go to court they don't know what to do and they're afraid they're afraid for what might happen they're afraid for you know somehow being injured in the process one way or the other and and if anybody doesn't if anybody questions that let them go one day I don't know if this is open right now I'll let them go to the district court and hang around and see all the people a lot of them are terrified well the family court for that matter a lot of them are terrified and and and so what you provide is is comfort and you you get you get them confident you build confidence in the system it's it's very important but in the time of COVID it's even more important because our whole society is being challenged our whole society is is potentially being undermined as we speak by the disease and by social impact of the disease and the economic impact of course so how how does that work do you do you see that already happening Tracy do you see the confidence has been questioned do you see that the system is being questioned and do you see that these programs particularly the pro bono programs are helping well they're absolutely are helping and I hesitate and I have to think about my response because this is a time where people are in complete overwhelm they're fearful more than ever it was already scary to go to court and be involved in a legal transaction but with COVID and people being stuck together and they're in their homes and being angry with each other and being fearful because nobody knows what the future holds it's created even more stress and fear for people so even for example when I have somebody come to the mediation center they're angrier they're more likely to disagree with things they're frustrated that they can't just go to court and have their case heard so I think it's a multitude of things going on right now and are all these volunteers services helping absolutely they all of our services are needed more than ever I know for the mediation center the pacific and the other community mediation centers across the state we have an increase in cases first and we're doing a lot remotely and that's not always accessible to everyone we've tried to do limited in person while still keeping people safe we've tried to help people navigate technology so it's a it's a difficult time and so everyone's services legal aid domestic violence action center all have seen an increase in need and everybody's working hard to to try and meet those needs so lawyer or non-lawyer if I feel that I want to contribute pro bono time or for that matter money where do I go what do I do who do I talk to so you can go to the access to justice commission's website and they list all the different legal service providers on there so it gives you the opportunity to look at which which organization seems to meet your interests maybe meet your skill set if you want to volunteer and all of them certainly would benefit from financial donation so I would encourage people to go to each organization's website to see the work that they're doing give the organization a call talk to their executive directors so that they can meet their priorities and where they'd like to fit their skills or financial resources with each organization's mission well tracy you know as you mentioned we we adhere to think tech we want to support the program and and we will do interviews of the winners the awardees and and the actual virtual ceremony too and I look forward to that we're out of time and I want to ask you one last question you know what would you leave as a message with our viewers what would you want them to think about what would you want them to take away from this discussion I think what I want people to know is the importance of volunteering the impact that all of these volunteers are making on our community and that they're they're committed and they want to see our community be stronger and if you have the capability of volunteering for one of these organizations or anywhere there's a lot of different organizations that need volunteers right now to pick up the phone or send an email and volunteer your time because it's working together that's going to help us all move through the difficult times that we're in and make a stronger hawaii in the future well put tracy welch and mediation to center center of the pacific and access to justice thank you so much for appearing on sync tech thank you j i appreciate it