MCC Law Center’s Consumer Protection Program Awarded Funding

Since opening in 1989, Middlesex Community College’s Law Center has handled about 25,000 complaints and saved consumers almost $5 million. Their success rate is about 75 percent.

The Law Center’s Local Consumer Program offers free mediation services for disputes between consumers and businesses and was named as part of Attorney General Maura Healey’s $1.17 million grant to fund local consumer advocacy programs.

During the mediation process, mediators guide the parties to a mutually agreed upon conclusion that prevents either side from having to go to court. A resolution is not solidified until both parties agree and, unlike in a court case where there are definitive winners and losers, mediation allows for compromise.

Heidi Rowell is an MCC alumna who worked in the center as a student and has now returned as the Coordinator of the Local Consumer Program. She understands firsthand the benefits of the program to MCC students as it provides the experience necessary to hone skills they are learning in their legal studies courses through internships, training and work experience.

Due to the serious nature of the proceedings, Law Center Director Terry Downes, Esq., warned that students must be capable of handling classified and sensitive information, which is difficult to teach in a classroom.

“We rely quite a bit on the screenings involved at the college,” Downes said. “Students who have a level of maturity that is necessary to be able to learn how to do this kind of work by telephone and then do these kinds of cases have to be mature people who can deal with significant issues in other peoples’ lives.”

For more information, please visit https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/lawcenter/contact or email lawcenter@middlesex.mass.edu.

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