Sep

29

Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation: A Good Idea?

Posted by: | September 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

The Florida Supreme Court has ordered a review of its 18-month-old mandatory foreclosure mediation program.  Should a similar process come to Wisconsin? In July 2011, Wisconsin had the 10th highest foreclosure rate in the United States, only four spots behind the State of Florida.  Several initiatives in Wisconsin have attempted to inject mediation into the [...]

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Sep

1

A Plea for E.N.E.

Posted by: | September 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment

One of the oldest maxims in writing is to never apologize for your work.  With that said, I do need to couch this article.  I stand by my premise 100%.  However, there are always exceptions to a rule.  One of my biggest influences in mediation is a former judge, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.  [...]

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Jun

30

Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program: Theory to Practice

Posted by: | June 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Andrea Schneider and Natalie Fleury have a new paper on SSRN that describes the Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program and analyzes the MFMP’s design by reference to dispute resolution theory.  The MFMP responded to the ongoing foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee, emerging from an initiative involving Marquette Law School and several government agencies, elected leaders, and community [...]

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Apr

18

Respecting Others’ Positions

Posted by: | April 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

Professor Calboli made an interesting point in her comment to one of my previous posts, where she used the phrase “respecting others’ positions.” This gave me an idea for another post. What does it mean to respect others’ positions? Values-based disputes are often very hard to negotiate and accordingly, mediators are introduced to help bridge [...]

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Apr

2

Israel Reflections: Dinner with the Baraks

Posted by: | April 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As followers of the blog know, one of the high points of our trip to Israel was dinner with Justice Aharon Barak and his wife Judge Elika Barak.  We were also joined by their daughter, Tamar, who is a mediator.  Interestingly from the dispute resolution perspective, Justice Barak was the judge who brought mediation to Israel [...]

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Feb

17

Mediation Tournament a Great Learning Experience

Posted by: | February 17, 2011 | 1 Comment

Two weeks ago I had to opportunity to compete in a mediation tournament. This tournament involved three rounds where each student rotated from round to round playing an attorney, a client, and a mediator. Being a participant and working with my fellow teammates has increased my understanding and skills as an attorney and a mediator.   In [...]

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Sep

29

Foreclosure Mediation Take 2?

Posted by: | September 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I am grateful to Paul Kirgis (in this post) for restarting the discussion on foreclosure mediation—it is useful to keep revisiting what is working and what is not. The New York Times article he cites is interesting in a number of ways. First, as Paul notes, it confuses the process of mediation with the underlying [...]

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Feb

18

A View of ADR as Part of the Process Instead of an Alternative to the Process

Posted by: | February 18, 2010 | 1 Comment

In law school I had the impression that Alternative Dispute Resolution was a practice area separate from litigation. Seemingly, there was a Chinese wall between the trial advocacy classes and ADR classes. After all, my ADR classes never discussed the techniques for cross-examinations, and my trial advocacy classes never discussed mediation or arbitration strategies. The ABA [...]

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Dec

5

The Wisdom of Children

Posted by: | December 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

With another great story about children, a shout out to my RA Erica Hayden for this lovely example of mediation told to her by a friend about her ten-year-old daughter: “Emily” came home from school one day and told her mom how she helped two girls make up with each other after a bad fight.  [...]

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Nov

9

Representation, Outcomes, and Fairness in Legal Proceedings

Posted by: | November 9, 2009 | 5 Comments

As my colleague Rebecca Blemberg recently blogged about, California has moved in the direction of recognizing a right to counsel for civil litigants with critical legal needs. The concept of a constitutional right to counsel in certain civil cases is often referred to as “Civil Gideon,” after the Supreme Court decision that established the right [...]

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Nov

5

Big Demand for a Win-Win Way to Resolve Mortgage Crises

Posted by: | November 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Unfortunately, business is booming when it comes to foreclosure problems in Wisconsin. Fortunately, the Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program is succeeding at helping a growing number of those problems end with people keeping their homes and financial institutions satisfied with new arrangements. Debra Tuttle, chief mediator for the program, said during a panel discussion at a [...]

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Jul

14

Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program Kickoff

Posted by: | July 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

With a terrific training session last week for our new volunteer attorney-mediators, I am pleased to report that the Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program is moving forward.  You can link here for the website giving the background details (including generous funding by the city and state — see the announcement by the Dean here) and our training materials.  After the training, I have a better [...]

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