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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…)

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Posted in People & Events, Policy-making, Program Evaluation, Program Management | 1 Comment »

Florida Looks to End Mandatory Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation

Jennifer Shack, October 25th, 2011

A Florida judicial committee has called for the end of mandatory mediation in Florida. As reported in the Palm Beach Post on Friday, statistics from the circuits show that statewide only 3.6% of all cases referred to mediation reached agreement from March 2010-March 2011. The committee cited obstacles such as “homeowner mistrust of the mediation program and lender resistance” for the program’s poor performance.

This leads to the question of why mandatory mediation is working so much better in Philadelphia, where 70% of all homeowners referred to mediation participate in the process, and 33% leave with an agreement. Only 16% of participating cases end with a sheriff’s sale. Perhaps Florida should look north before scrapping their program.

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Posted in Policy-making, Program Evaluation | 4 Comments »

Potholes on the Road to Justice: Race and Mediation

Heather Scheiwe Kulp, October 17th, 2011

Mediation is about giving everyone a chance to share their stories, balancing power dynamics and leveling the playing field. But what if the ground on which we presume to build the field has holes too big to backfill sufficiently?

Those issues that lend themselves most to mediation in the court setting disproportionately impact (more…)

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Posted in Policy-making, Program Evaluation, Research, Training, Skills & Techniques | No Comments »

Using Participant Surveys to Assess the Need for Program Change

Jennifer Shack, August 10th, 2011

I just finished working with a restorative justice program in downstate Illinois to develop post-process evaluation forms. The program provides several services for juveniles who are primarily sent to them through police station adjustments. We worked together to develop forms for peer jury and victim-offender mediation.

What was exciting to me about our collaboration is that they were interested in gathering data for the express purpose of evaluating their own process of intake and orientation, as well as the juveniles’ reaction to the process. (more…)

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Posted in Program Evaluation, Program Management | No Comments »

Child Protection Mediation Study Shows Benefits For Families

Jennifer Shack, January 18th, 2011

Child protection mediation has been shown in a number of studies to have a positive impact on families, the court and, most importantly, the children. Now one more study adds to the evidence for this. At the request of Judge Patricia Martin, the Presiding Judge of the Child Protection Division, RSI undertook an evaluation of the Cook County Circuit Court Child Protection Mediation Program. The study, which we just published, looked at three areas: program performance, program process and stakeholder understanding and assessment of mediation and its role and function within the child protection system. (more…)

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Posted in Program Evaluation | 1 Comment »

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