
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250225
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

LAWYERS FORM GROUP TO PREVENT LITIGATION

Former Gov. A. Linwood Holton Jr. of McLean, former Attorney General Andrew P. Miller of Washington and seven men from Western Virginia are helping resolve disputes through a new state program.

They are among 50 prominent lawyers, all fellows of the Virginia Law Foundation, who will use such techniques as arbitration, mediation, settlement conferences and non-binding minitrials to solve disputes in an effort to prevent litigation.

Richard Balnave, a University of Virginia law professor, is director of the Virginia Dispute Resolution Center at UVa Law School. He will administer the program for the foundation, based in Richmond. Disputes from divorces to consumer complaints are being resolved elsewhere without litigation through a variety of programs, Balnave said.

The Virginia program is believed to be the first in the nation associated with state bar organizations. The new center is a joint project of the Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association.

Western Virginia participants are retired Judge Ernest Ballou and Wilbur L. Hazlegrove, Roanoke; Roy L. Steinheimer, former dean of the Washington and Lee University Law School, Lexington; Philip M. Sadler, Pulaski; William W. Eskridge, Abingdon; and Carl C. Gillespie, Tazewell.

by CNB