The beginning of the year always prompts reflection and re-dedication to self-improvement. While we at RSI can’t promise you we’ll take our vitamins every day in the new year, we do pledge to continue bringing you expert resources about court ADR, including quality blog posts about of-the-moment ADR issues. Let’s start 2012 with a look back at the top court ADR stories in 2011, grouped by theme. Jen Shack, Jessica Glowinski and Heather Scheiwe Kulp have also made a few predictions for the hot topics of 2012. Do you agree? Any to add?
Posts Tagged ‘mediation’
Top Ten Court ADR Developments in 2011, Trends for 2012
Heather Scheiwe Kulp, January 10th, 2012Developing Mediation Programs as an Exercise of Police Power?
Heather Scheiwe Kulp, December 7th, 2011The 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…)
Potholes on the Road to Justice: Race and Mediation
Heather Scheiwe Kulp, October 17th, 2011Mediation 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…)
Combining Mediation and Unbundled Legal Services
Jessica Glowinski, July 5th, 2011Last month RSI’s Heather Scheiwe Kulp blogged about the need for courts to find creative solutions to the problems of increasing caseloads, increasing numbers of self-represented litigants and dwindling resources to handle it all. As if in answer, an article showed up in RSI inboxes last week that addressed these very issues. (more…)
Uniform Mediation Act – Ten Years Later
Susan Yates, July 1st, 2011The JAMS Dispute Resolution Alert has a good article by Justin Kelly about the ten-year anniversary of the Uniform Mediation Act. Having participated in some of the deliberations during the drafting of the Act, I have been interested to see how it has been implemented.
One thing that stands out to me, even after ten years, is the lack of clarity among mediators, lawyers and the mediating public about exactly what the Act provides in terms of confidentiality. Many see the UMA as providing confidentiality of all mediation communications. In fact, what it provides is much narrower than that. (more…)