Published a year after the Florida Supreme Court ordered all circuit courts in the state to establish foreclosure mediation programs, this interim report by the Court's Committee on ADR Rules and Policy found that the state's longest-running programs are struggling to bring homeowners to the mediation table. The report includes data collected from March-June 2010. Although 20 circuit courts had foreclosure mediation programs at the time of the report, only seven were in effect during that time period. The seven programs received a total of 13,417 case referrals, but were only able to contact borrowers in 5,919 (44%) cases. Of those cases where borrowers were contacted, mediations were conducted for 2,250 cases (38%). Settlement was reached in 34% of mediations. Since more than half of the state's programs were excluded from the report, the Committee concluded that it didn't have sufficient data to evaluate the program model. The Committee recommended "continuing the Program for a sufficient amount of time to capture enough statistics to create 'critical mass' in terms of statistical validity." The Committee also recommended that courts determine the effect the programs are having on their workloads.
Report and Recommendations Relating to the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program
Florida Supreme Court Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy. Dec. 28, 2010http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/documents/Foreclosure/12-28-2010_Foreclosure_Mediation_Report_1.pdf