DC: foreclosure mediation

Washington, D.C. recently passed legislation requiring mediation prior to a home foreclosure, according to Benny Kass at the Washington Post.

According to the article, 23 states have enacted some form of mediation for foreclosure cases. The legislation requires lenders to send notice of default to the homeowner and a notice to participate in mediation. The mediation notice must contain the lender's contact information and contact information for a local housing counseling service. The legislation also requires the lender to provide a description of its loss-mitigation programs along with a loss-mitigation application.

Workplace confrontation

Here's a very interesting article from Jenna Goudreau at the Forbes blog. It's about handling conflict in the workplace. Here are some quotes:

In a workplace, you are standing in a field of conflict.

How you handle confrontation in the office may be as important as networking and technical skills.

And checkout the slides that accompany the article--they are very good.

Texas Association of Mediators Annual Conference

I am a board member for the Texas Association of Mediators (TAM) and its conference is right around the corner. Starting on February 25, 2011, TAM will hold its annual conference at the Crown Plaza Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.

For more information about the conference, please click here.

The conference keynote speakers are top-notch. They are:

• Erica Ariel Fox, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, the Founder of the Global Negotiation Insight Institute, and a Partner of Mobius Executive Leadership;
• Lee Jay Berman, one of the country's top mediators, founder of the American Institute of Mediation and formerly Director of Pepperdine Law School's 'Mediating the Litigated Case'; and
• Richard Barnes, President of C. Richard Barnes and Associates, LLC and former director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

I'm looking forward to seeing you in San Antonio in February!

I'm back

It has been a year since I've posted. As many of you know, I made a run for judge of a civil district court here in Dallas County, and unfortunately lost in the general election by roughly 2,800 votes of 407,000 cast. I did not feel that it was proper for me to continue blogging during the election year, so I ceased that activity.

I'm ready to start back up.

A lot has been happening in the world of mediation and conflict resolution, and even though I have not blogged about it, I have kept up. I am anxious to share news and updates with you and I hope you will continue to enjoy the posts.

Probate Mediation

I ran across an excellent essay today by Rikk Larsen about mediating the estate case. Rikk suggests that mediation is underused in the estate planning and settlement field. He makes three suggestions to increase the use of mediation in this area:

1) Convince entrenched professionals, the lawyers, financial planners and CPA’s, that mediation is not a threat but a positive team option that can help make their job easier and not diminish their billable hours.

2) Continue to work with probate courts to include mediation as a formal court approved option that judges understand and embrace. Presently only a few courts have formal programs like the one New Hampshire is introducing this year on a statewide basis.

3) Continue general marketing to the public by word of mouth, print articles, other media pieces and professional association support.

What do you think? Are courts, attorneys, and financial planners using mediation in estate settlement procedures?

Credit Cards and Consumer Arbitration

Capital One announced that is will no longer require consumer disputes to be resolved through binding arbitration. According to the Associated Press, Capital One will amend its credit card contracts starting next month.

Bank of America announced last week that it was removing the arbitration provisions from its consumer contracts. MSNBC reports here.

These amendments are subject to court approval.

We've blogged on this issue before with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as well as the National Arbitration Forum altering its practices in light of litigation. In this case, Capital One says that a class action suit naming it as a defendant did not drive the decision to eliminate the mandatory arbitration provision for its consumer contracts.

The AP reports that the class action suit, filed by Berger & Montague, alleges that major banks conspired to require card members to go to arbitration to resolve disputes.

But is this a good move? I'm not taking a position on this, but with current advancements in arbitration (including the company paying for arbitration, and not the consumer), does the argument that arbitration is more expensive (for the consumer) still hold water? Is there empirical evidence that arbitrators rule in favor of the creditors more often than the debtors? I would be interested to know what the empirical evidence suggests.

GM won't challenge arbitration

The Detroit News is reporting that General Motors will not fight legislation that requires binding arbitration. The House Bill requires binding arbitration and an appeals process for those dealerships that were shut down this summer.