Blaming ADR
When Mayanne Downs took office as President of The Florida Bar in June 2010, she stated that under her watch, a special committee would examine the decline in the number of jury trials and its impact...
View ArticlePart 3 of 3: Foreclosure Mediation Best Practices
MEDIATION SESSION ELEMENTS Ensure Mediators are Well-Trained Some programs, fearing they will not be able to attract people to mediate, lower the requirements for training mediators. Instead of the...
View ArticleMake the Most of Your Data
If you’re wondering whether the mediation participant survey forms you’re using for your program is asking the right questions, or if you want to improve reports about your program, join me in Part II...
View ArticleUsing Foreclosure Settlement Funds for Effective Mortgage Dispute Resolution
The settlement was huge. Five major banks signed an agreement with 49 Attorneys General after the AGs instigated an investigation into the foreclosure crisis and the banks’ involvement in it. The...
View ArticleForeclosure Mediation by the Numbers
There has been a lot of talk about whether mediation is an effective answer to the foreclosure crisis, but there hasn’t been a lot of information. RSI is trying to rectify that. As one step in...
View ArticleState Resource Spotlight
As I review court ADR websites across the country for our CourtADR.org resources, I’m truly impressed by the number of inventive, extensive and helpful offerings I’ve found. Many sites offer ADR...
View ArticleState Resource Spotlight, Part 2
Last week I discussed three excellent court ADR websites from around the country. This week, here are three more outstanding sites. Each of the sites in this series offers resources that make it...
View ArticleYes, It Can Be Done: Ten Program Models, One Online System
When Resolution Systems Institute received a grant from the Illinois Attorney General to develop foreclosure mediation programs across the state, it was our opportunity to practice what we preach. From...
View ArticleMore Evidence of the Effectiveness of Restorative Justice
For this month’s Court ADR Connection (RSI’s monthly e-newsletter), I wrote about a study of 10 restorative justice conferences that demonstrated significant benefits to the community by reducing...
View ArticleForeclosure Mediation Programs Reflect and Refine
Foreclosure mediation programs can now be found all over the country. Models vary widely, both in their rules and procedures and in terms of the populations they serve. Most programs were started as a...
View ArticleDifferent Program Models Beginning to Show Different Strengths
The Illinois Attorney General’s grant for foreclosure mediation has so far resulted in five programs with five different service delivery models. This has had me, as evaluator of the programs, anxious...
View ArticleHousing Matters
Last Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Housing Matters conference hosted by Housing Action Illinois, a statewide coalition formed to protect and expand the availability of...
View ArticleForeclosure Mediation Programs Helping to Retain More Homes
I’ve just completed the quarterly statistical report for foreclosure mediation programs in Illinois in the 16th, 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st Judicial Circuits. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you...
View ArticleWhat Happens to Temporary Loan Modifications Reached in Foreclosure Mediation?
A lot of the cases that go through RSI’s foreclosure mediation programs end with a temporary loan modification – a trial payment plan in which the homeowner pays a new mortgage amount for a few months....
View ArticleConnecticut Evaluates Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program
In October 2014, the Connecticut Judicial Branch released an evaluation of its Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. The Connecticut study evaluates six years of foreclosure mediation program data,...
View ArticleRSI Turns 20!
Can you believe RSI is twenty years old today? Back in 1995, no one could have predicted that what started as an idea – collect and disseminate reliable information about court ADR in Illinois – would...
View ArticleIn Foreclosure Mediation, Make It Easy to Participate
When it comes to foreclosure mediation, how a program is designed has a large impact on eligible homeowners. That was the broad finding of the evaluation of six foreclosure mediation programs in...
View ArticleWhat “Mandatory” Really Means in Foreclosure Mediation
There is a lot to be learned by reading RSI’s evaluation of the foreclosure mediation programs that are supported by a grant from the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. The evaluation, which was...
View ArticleMonitoring Mediation Program Progress and Implementing Changes in Cook County
The foreclosure mediation program in Cook County, Illinois, which serves Chicago and many of its suburbs, has done what all ADR programs should do. It has tracked specific measures of success,...
View ArticleDesigning Access Part One: How RSI Used Outcome Measures to Reach Homeowners...
Welcome to my first of three blog posts showcasing how RSI uses our expertise in dispute system design to improve access to justice in the three foreclosure mediation programs we administer. I...
View Article
