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An efficient family violence screening tool for mediators: The MASIC-S

An efficient family violence screening tool for mediators: The MASIC-S

Date: Thursday, February 1, 1:00 – 2:30 PM ET.

Discussants: Amy G. Applegate, JD, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, IN, Hilary Linton, JD, LLM, Riverdale Mediation, Toronto, ON, Canada, and Annamaria W. Walsh, JD, Appellate Court of Maryland

Video:

Leading experts in the research and practice of the use of family dispute resolution in family violence cases will discuss the importance of screening for family violence; introduce the MAISIC screening tool for mediators; share the latest research, tips and tools to help professionals achieve best practice standards when helping to resolve cases involving family violence, particularly those in which there are serious safety risks and power imbalances arising from family violence.

Speakers/Panellists:

Annamaria M. Walsh

Annamaria M. Walsh, Esq., is the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Division of the Appellate Court of Maryland, where she supervises a team of highly skilled staff attorney-mediators and manages the daily operations of the Division. In addition to her supervisory and program development roles, she co-mediates civil appellate cases with Senior Judge-Mediators, screens cases for appropriateness, and prepares orders and remands to dispense of pending appeals. Ms. Walsh previously served as the Director of the Office of Family Mediation in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, which provides mediation services in over 800 contested child access cases every year. Prior to joining the Judiciary, Ms. Walsh maintained a private family law litigation and mediation practice.

Ms. Walsh received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, magna cum laude, from Towson State University, and her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Amy G. Applegate

Amy G. Applegate, Clinical Professor of Law and Ralph F. Fuchs Faculty Fellow, and Director of the Civil Protection Order Clinic, joined the faculty at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2001, after a career in private and government practice. In the current clinic she teaches, Applegate has introduced screening for intimate partner violence (“IPV”) with clients seeking civil protection orders. Applegate has also taught mediation theory and practice in the clinical law program that she developed at the Law School. Through this program, law students have provided mediation services to indigent and low-income litigants in disputed custody, parenting-time, and other family law cases.

Applegate has received teaching, research, and service awards for her work. She has been a leader in clinical legal education on the national level in the United States, and actively and significantly involved in state and local bar activities, with a special emphasis in the areas of delivery of pro bono services, training mediators, and mediation ethics.Applegate and colleagues have conducted research on family law issues, focusing on families experiencing parental divorce or separation. She and her colleagues have developed and tested the best methods of screening for a history of IPV in cases seeking family mediation, so that mediators are aware of IPV and consider the possible impact of IPV on the mediation process. Applegate and colleagues have also conducted randomized controlled trials testing the effectiveness of family law interventions, including different mediation approaches (for both families with and without histories of IPV) and online parent education programs. Applegate has co-authored many publications in her research areas. Additionally, she has presented individually, as well as with her collaborators, in presentations at state, national, and international conferences about her research and practice areas.

Hilary Linton

Hilary Linton practised family law in Toronto before starting a family mediation, arbitration and parenting coordination firm in 2021. At Riverdale Mediation she works with a team of lawyers and a retired judge to deliver high quality dispute resolution services. Screening for family violence and power imbalances is a critical element of successful family law and dispute resolution practice. As a mediation trainer, Hilary teaches legal and mental health students from many jurisdictions the best practices in identifying, assessing and managing power imbalance and IPV risk in all areas of family dispute resolution.

Hilary also supervises family mediators in Toronto’s three family courts (Toronto Family Mediation Services.) She has designed standardized procedures for screening in this context, incorporating the MASIC and more recently the MASIC-s tool into protocols for mediators. Hilary was a member of the Advisory Group that developed the seminal HELP Toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for Family Law Legal Advisers, published on the Justice Canada website. She is also the author of the Ontario Judges’ and Lawyers’ Guide to Safety Planning, Ontario Family Law Practice (Vol 2), 2024. (Lexis Nexis).