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My Favorite Resource Featuring Missy Greathouse

Nicole Wilmet, June 7th, 2018

Our series, My Favorite Resource, features interviews with our court ADR friends across the country to learn about their favorite resource. This month, Resource Center Director Nicole Wilmet spoke with Missy Greathouse, the Executive Director of Dispute Resolution Institute to learn about her favorite ADR Resource.

NW: What is one of your favorite ADR resources?

MG: Other than RSI’s website and newsletter (my number one favorite resources), my current favorite ADR resource is the newsletter of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution – In the Alternative.

NW: Why do you value this particular resource?

MG: On average there are six newsletters released a year, with updates on cases, ADR news and articles on topics of interest to those of us in ADR. I appreciate the information that is Illinois specific, but especially appreciate the opportunity to learn what is going on around the country.

NW: How did you first learn about this resource?

MG: When I joined the ISBA years ago, I learned about the newsletter when I signed up for the section. In addition, I have had the privilege of serving on the ISBA ADR Section Council for the last few years and have been able to see the work our editor puts into the newsletter along with the help of students from North Central College.

NW: For those unfamiliar with this resource, what is one part of this resource that you wouldn’t want someone to miss?

MG: I would definitely recommend the case briefs section to ensure you’re updated on the latest cases and how the ruling may affect our practice as ADR practitioners.

If you have a favorite resource you would like to share in an upcoming edition of our newsletter, please reach out to our Resource Center Director and Court ADR Connection Editor, Nicole Wilmet at nwilmet@aboutrsi.org!

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Rhode Island and Connecticut May Soon Be Without Foreclosure Mediation Policies if Legislature Intervention is Unsuccessful

Nicole Wilmet, June 6th, 2018

The future of both Rhode Island and Connecticut’s foreclosure mediation policies are currently in the hands of their respective state legislatures. Both states have sunset provisions looming on the horizon with the Rhode Island Foreclosure Mediation Act set to end on July 1, 2018 and Connecticut’s foreclosure mediation program set to end June 30, 2019.

Enacted in 2013, the Rhode Island’s Foreclosure Mediation Act grants homeowners who face foreclosure the opportunity to meet with their lender and an independent mediator to try to work out a solution to avoid foreclosure. According to the Providence Journal, since 2013 the Foreclosure Mediation Act has helped 679 families stay in their homes. In an effort to keep foreclosure mediation, earlier this year, Sen. Elizabeth Crowley, Sen. Paul Jabour, Sen. Harold Metts, and Sen. Ana Quezada sponsored a Senate’s version of the bill that would extend the sunset provision to July 1, 2023. In the House, Rep. Susan Donovan, Rep. Raymond Johnston, Rep. Mary Messier, and Rep. Michael Morin sponsored the House version of the bill that would repeal the sunset provision entirely. Currently, the Senate voted and passed their version of the bill on May 23, 2018, but the House Judiciary Committee recommended earlier this month that their version of the bill be held for further study.

The Connecticut legislature is also working to extend the life of their state’s foreclosure mediation program. The Connecticut foreclosure mediation program began in 2008. As this article from the Hartford Courant highlights, between the program’s inception on July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017, the program has heard 27,958 cases. Of these cases 70% resulted in borrowers staying in their homes, 16% reached agreements for a short sale or other measure, and only 14% did not settle. Like the bills in Rhode Island, there are two versions of an act that would either extend or eliminate the sunset provision making their way through the Connecticut legislature. Both versions of the bill are sponsored by the House of Representatives Banking Committee with the most notable difference between the two bills being the treatment of the sunset provision. The House version of the bill the bill would eradicate the sunset provision for the program entirely whereas the Senate version would extend the sunset provision to December 31, 2019.  Given that the sunset provision doesn’t expire until 2019, the Connecticut legislature has more time to save their foreclosure mediation program than Rhode Island.

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My Favorite Resource Featuring Doug Van Epps

Nicole Wilmet, May 11th, 2018

Our series, My Favorite Resource, features interviews with our court ADR friends across the country to learn about their favorite resource. In April, Resource Center Director Nicole Wilmet spoke with Doug Van Epps, Director of the Michigan Office of Dispute Resolution to learn about his favorite resource.

NW: What is one of your favorite ADR resources?

DVE: Aside from the RSI website, which is my “go to” point of departure for most research questions, I frequently rely on the 3-volume set, “Mediation: Law, Policy & Practice,” by Cole, McEwen, Rogers, Coen, and Thompson, updated annually, and published by Thomson Reuters.

NW: Why do you value this particular resource?

DVE: This compendium of mediation research, practice, and state statutes has frequently been helpful in researching a gamut of mediation questions, e.g., the operation of confidentiality and privilege across the states, identifying the array of mandatory arbitration practices in the country, resources for specific dispute types, and a state-by-state encyclopedia of statutes, to name a few examples.

NW: How did you first learn about this resource?

DVE: A marketing brochure.

NW: For those unfamiliar with this resource, what is one part of this resource that you wouldn’t want someone to miss?

DVE: Acknowledging that this resource is probably most helpful for persons frequently researching policy questions, practices, procedures, and statutes across states, I’ve found it helpful just to periodically review my own state’s compendium of statutes so that I’m up to speed on how dispute resolution is evolving in branches of government beyond the judiciary.

If you have a favorite resource you would like to share in an upcoming edition of our newsletter, please reach out to our Resource Center Director and Court ADR Connection Editor, Nicole Wilmet at nwilmet@aboutrsi.org!

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A Pawfect Participant – New Study Says Therapy Dogs May Help Manage Emotions in Family Mediation

Nicole Wilmet, May 1st, 2018

A recent Harvard Negotiation Law Review paper written by David Paul, an attorney, mediator, and family law arbitrator in British Columbia, suggests that therapy dogs may benefit participants in family law mediation. As this article reports, the genesis behind David’s idea to use dogs in mediation first came to him twelve years ago when he brought his family dog into work with him. As David explains, while at work his dog would quietly sit in on family law mediations and he noticed that the dog had a calming effect on the mediating parties. Flash forward a decade later, while David was pursuing his Masters of Law degree in Dispute Resolution, he dove further into this subject by dedicating his thesis to studying therapy dogs and mediation after he realized that the use of therapy dogs had been studied in a wide variety of fields except for law.

David’s article, discusses how Animal-Assisted Intervention (using animals for therapeutic purposes) may be a useful practice to incorporate into family mediations as a means to deescalate emotions and facilitate effective communications. The article begins by cultivating research that details the physical and emotional health benefits of therapy animals. Benefits of therapy dogs include an increase in positive emotions, attention, concentration, relation, and motivation and a decrease in blood pressure, heart rate, emotional pain, stress, depression, anger, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness. Given the emotional benefits of therapy dogs, David advocates for using Canine-Assisted Mediation (CAM) in family law mediations, which often involve highly emotional and life-changing disputes.  David argues that including therapy dogs in mediation would provide mediators with a cost-effective, safe and non-verbal tool that mediators could add to their toolbox and use to manage parties’ emotions. The article also argues a variety of ways that CAM could meet the needs of family litigants including: making the mediation process less intimidating, enhancing the mood, increasing feelings of trust, relieving the parties’ emotional distress, and providing parties with social support. Finally, the article also provides guidelines for planning and implementing effective CAM.

Today, Paul is currently working on putting his research to practice and is having his puppy Charlie trained to become Canada’s first certified therapy dog in family law mediation.

      David Paul and his dog Charlie
      Image: Jenifer Norwell /CBC

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