History of the Dispute Resolution Center Travis County
By Kris Donley

The Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) of Travis County was incorporated as a private, non?profit organization in 1983 through the efforts of several members of the Austin Young Lawyers Association and other interested individuals. A $1,500 grant from the American Bar Association/Young Lawyers Division provided the seed money to obtain further funding for a community?based center where citizens could settle their disputes without going to court.

Initially, the Center was known as the Citizens' Dispute Settlement Center of Austin/Travis County, Incorporated, then as the Mediation Center of Travis County, and, in 1986 was designated as the Dispute Resolution Center (DRC).

As the Center was developing, the 1983 Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 10, which authorized all County Commissioner Courts: (a) to establish and maintain alternative dispute resolution systems in cooperation with local bar associations and (b) to support such systems by a filing fee of up to $5 for each civil case filed in county and district courts. The fee has since been increased to a maximum of $10 per case and has provided a stable financial base for ADR centers in Texas. Currently, this fee-based contribution provides about half of the operational budget for the Center, the remainder coming from training and client fee revenues and grants.

The 1987 Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures Act added momentum to the "ADR movement" by: (a) setting forth the state's policy of encouraging peaceful settlement of citizens' disputes and the early settlement of pending litigation; (b) providing a means for implementing ADR mechanisms; and (c) assuring the confidentiality of discussions and materials used by the disputing parties in an ADR procedure. Dispute resolution centers now exist in seventeen counties throughout Texas.

Currently, the Dispute Resolution Center in Austin utilizes the efforts of over 150 volunteer mediators, providing services for 800 to 1000 cases per year and serving up to 5,000 citizens involved in disputes and/or seeking conflict resolution related training. The Center supports a staff of eight employees and occupies half of the fourth floor within the Bank One Building at 5407 North IH35 in Austin.

Kris Donley has served as the Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Center for the past six and one half years. In addition to her position, she has most recently served as Regional Membership Coordinator of the National Association for Community Mediation in Washington, DC, Past Chair of the Texas DRC Directors' Council and presenter at the 7th Annual International Conflict Resolution Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Editor's note: for more information on the Austin Dispute Resolution Center go to http://www.austindrc.org. To contact the DRC write: drc@austindrc.org.