Longtime - KeyBiscayner Allene Nicholson is making her mark in the Florida legal community as president and co-founder of Florida Mediation Group, Inc.The former litigator founded FMG three years ago to practice in the then-unusual specialty of settling legal disputes without going to trial.

With the American legal system bursting at the seams from the volume of litigation it must handle, mediation is evolving as the answer to the exorbitant costs and delays of litigation. Avoiding the courtroom has become a top priority for people and organizations caught up in legal conflicts ranging from business disputes to personal injury claims, condominiurn feuds, foreclosures, collections and divorce.

FMG's fortunes have' risen accordingly.

"Florida is at the forefront of the mediation movement," said Nicholson,whose office is a 2,500 square-foot suite across the street from the Dade County' Courthouse. Florida was the first state to pass a statute that would order the parties in a lawsuit to go to mediation, she noted.

"Mediation began as a controversial idea," said Nicholson "Lawyers at first complained bitterly. They said it would never settle anything, and that it was a waste of time and money."

In the years since Nicholson opened her firm, however, the sentiment has changed drastically. As a result, business is booming for FMG .

It is home to 17 lawyer-mediators state wide.

Nicholson handled the firm's original average of three cases per week alone; now, she mediates seven to ten cases per week personally and directs the mediation activities of 17 certified mediators throughout the state. Bimonthly meetings and a mentor/observation program enhance the skills and confidence associated with the group.

Program director and firm co-founder Burt Lowlicht handles training programs in the local insurance offices throughout the state and consults with plaintiff attorneys, helping them to identify appropriate types of cases for voluntary mediation.

FMG's programs provides insurance companies and plaintiff attorneys a framework for accessing voluntary mediation at early stages of the development of cases. The FMG framework for voluntary mediations is analogous to the one that the courts use in court-ordered mediation.

Florida Mediation Group is currently involved in a pilot mediation program in the U.S. Federal Court Southern District with Judge C. Clyde Atkins and is extending that program to the court of Judge DonaldGraham. The firm presented a seminar and training session for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami on June 9 focusing on the potential use of mediation in civil cases involving the United States government.

FMG also provides' mediation and other: alternative dispute resolution services state-wide including the popular Mediated Settlement day. These "days" provide for the for mediation of three or four eases a day at one location, usually the premises of the insurance carrier, at a reduced cost. Participating insurance companies have included Progressive, Allstate and Geico.

In addition, a recent Florida Mediation Group seminar for the Kendall-South Miami Bar Association offered' four credit hours of continuing legal education and featured a mock mediation to enhance the skills of lawyers in resolving legal disputes

Without going to court.

FMG mediates legal disputes in most Florida cities. Addidonally, as the Florida affiliate of United States Arbitration & Mediation, Florida Mediadon Group has instant access to mediators and facilities in 44 offices throughout North America and Europe.

Nicholson, the mother of Islander News reporter Darrell Nicholson and Atlanta, Ga., YMCA soccer director Lara Nicholson, a well-known KBAC athlete, still finds time for Key activities. She served on the committee to select the village clerk and is a member of St. Christopher's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church.

Six mornings a week, Nicholson is at the Miami Rowing Club dock on Virginia Key at 5:30 sharp and on the water by 6 a.m. for an hour's vigorous exercise before heading to the office.. Her team will be competing for the National rowing championship in August in Camden, NJ.

A 1975 graduate of the University of Miami Law School, Nicholson is a Board Cerdfied Civil' Trial Attorney and spent years in the courtrooms before deciding to change course in 1989.

"One of the best parts of mediation is that the layperson becomes an active participant in his or her case. Its an opportunity for you to determine the outcome of your case. Otherwise, you must rely on the opinion of six folks who will be brought in from the streets of Miami to hear your case." said Nicholson.

Nicholson said that Indiana and Texas have also passed mandatory mediation statutes, and that the Federal District Court in Miami is studying a proposal to institute mediation in the federal courts.