Metcalf

Michael P. “Mike” Metcalf doing business as Metcalf Mediation & Arbitration Services is engaged in the practice of law which is focused on the mediation and arbitration of civil disputes. Judge Metcalf has more than 40 years of legal experience that includes service in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corp, as a District Attorney, District Judge and trial lawyer. Mike has been board certified as a trial lawyer in Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1991.

From a background of more than forty years of experience with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) Judge Metcalf approaches mediation with a thorough understanding of what it takes to resolve a dispute. Judge Metcalf was a judicial pioneer in the development of ADR. Sitting as District Judge of a six county Judicial District with a heavy trial docket, Mike recognized there was a deeply unfulfilled need for parties to be afforded the opportunity to explore settlement of their case prior to trial. In 1976, long before ADR and mediation became a fixture of the modern legal system, Judge Metcalf instituted a system of settlement conferences in his Court. The settlement conferences were a precursor to alternative dispute resolution through mediation. A Court ordered settlement conference required counsel for the parties to meet with the Court and the opposing lawyer to discuss settlement. The settlement conference became the catalyst that afforded the parties an opportunity to discuss and explore settlement of their dispute before going through an expensive trial. Many cases were settled that would otherwise have been tried had it not been for the chance to discuss resolution of the matter in a neutral atmosphere.