Resources / Study / Innovation for Court ADR

Just Court ADR

The blog of Resolution Systems Institute

Archive for December, 2011

Termination of Mandatory Statewide Foreclosure Mediation in Florida Leads to a Few Lessons

Heather Scheiwe Kulp, December 20th, 2011

The Florida Supreme Court issued an order Monday, December 19, 2011, terminating the mandatory mediation program it created in 2009 as an emergency measure to deal with the foreclosure flood in Florida. While individual circuits can create localized mediation programs or refer foreclosures cases to mediation on a case-by-case basis, and some programs commit to remaining active, the statewide program will receive no new referrals as of yesterday.

Without commenting on whether this is a good or a not-so-good move, (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in People & Events, Policy-making, Program Evaluation, Program Management | 2 Comments »

Leaving an ADR Legacy

Susan Yates, December 14th, 2011

Court ADR lost a champion yesterday when Judge Harris H. Agnew, RSI’s long-time Executive Committee Chair, passed away after a long struggle to regain his health. Judge Agnew led by example, with kindness and courage.  This blog post I wrote back in April talks about the tremendous role he played in advancing court ADR in Illinois. But there was so much more to Harris than just his work with ADR.

Those of us who were fortunate to know him learned a lot from Harris:

Leading sometimes means doing what is right, even when others don’t see it.

Whether it was mentoring the first women to join the bench in the 17th Judicial Circuit or implementing arbitration and mediation there, Harris stuck his neck out. He opened doors for people and ideas that would bring positive change even in the face of opposition.

Be kind, but don’t be a patsy.

Harris was so kind to everyone he met that it took me a while to understand just how politically savvy he really was. (more…)

Posted in People & Events | 7 Comments »

Developing Mediation Programs as an Exercise of Police Power?

Heather Scheiwe Kulp, December 7th, 2011

The foreclosure crisis is real, and it is not dissipating anytime soon. So why would a borrower advocate undermine a process meant to facilitate resolutions?

State and local governments seek creative ways to resolve the crisis. Some have looked to mediation and its rich history of providing a forum to disputing parties – including parties to foreclosures – to discuss alternatives to litigation. Courts (in judicial foreclosure states) and other government entities (in non-judicial foreclosure states) have created mediation programs to encourage borrowers and servicers to talk face-to-face about options other than foreclosure. These options include loan modifications as well as graceful exits.

Now, a court case in Nevada (Wells Fargo v. Renslow) challenging the constitutionality of Nevada’s non-judicial Foreclosure Mediation Program threatens to dismantle 30 years of good work mediators and mediation developers have done. And it’s not because Wells Fargo claims that the Program violates the U.S. Constitution’s contracts clause. (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Policy-making, Program Management | No Comments »