| The Los Angeles County Bar Association received two national community
service awards from the American Society of Association Executives. The Student
Mediation Program, operated by LACBA’S Dispute Resolution Services, received a
"Summit Award," the top honor in the 1998 ASAE Advance America Awards.
The county bar also received an "Award of Excellence" from ASAE for Smartlaw,
a free telephone consumer law information service.
The student mediation program began in 1987 because of the increased time that middle
and high school administrators and faculty spent on discipline and conflicts among
students. It teaches youths how to resolve problems in a nonviolent and consensus-building
way.
The program has served eight Los Angeles-area school districts in the last five years.
Last year, more than 3,300 students participated.
Smartlaw (213/243-1500) offers information about 275 recorded topics and will become
bilingual in the next few months, offering help in Spanish as well as English. The
telephone service has received nearly 1 million calls since its inception in 1994. |
