Mediation Program Research Articles

Interim Evaluation of Dispute Settlement Centre Victoria Projects: The Neighbourhood Justice Centre Project – The Corio/Norlane Community Mediation Project

This report prepared for the Department of Justice, Victoria, presents an interim evaluation of two projects that support mediation and conflict resolution projects that are connected to Court and community programs. The Report includes developed evaluation tools for the agencies to use into the future as well as material on restorative justice and mediation programs.

‘Joe everyday, people off the street’: a qualitative study on mediators’ roles and skills in victim–offender mediation

This qualitative study examined multiple perspectives of participants who experienced a Victim–Offender Mediation (VOM) program in a Midwestern city in the United States. Of particular interest are the roles and skills of mediators. Data consisted of 34 face‐to‐face interviews with 37 participants including adult crime victims, juvenile offenders and their parents, mediators and representatives from referring agencies. Insider perspectives regarding the roles and skills of the mediators in restorative processes were revealed through personal stories. Although the majority of the participants reported that the roles and skills of mediators were consistent with restorative justice principles, this exploratory study also revealed that some roles and skills exhibited by mediators were inconsistent with restorative justice values, which shows the variance of ‘real world’ restorative justice. Recommendations are made to promote mediators’ roles and skills that are compatible with restorative justice principles.

From Postal to Peaceful: Dispute Systems Design in the USPS REDRESS® Program

This article explores the concept of dispute systems design for workplace disputes, focusing particularly on the first two stages: organizational diagnosis and design. It argues that dispute systems should be designed in light of the conflict-related motivations and behaviors of personnel under existing conditions, as well as the likely consequences of each design choice on their future motivations and behaviors, including incentives to participate in the new system.These assertions are illustrated with an in-depth case study of Resolve Employment Disputes, Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly (REDRESS®), the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employment mediation program. The case study shows that the organizational diagnosis stage was critical to the successful design of the USPS program in that it provided important information about the dispute behaviors of personnel in the existing system. In turn, this information helped the USPS understand how various design choices would affect individual incentives to participate the future REDRESS® system.

Mediators' Facilitative Versus Controlling Argument Strategies and Tactics: A Qualitative Analysis Using the Conversational Argument Coding System

This study examined how utilization of the Conversational Argument Coding Scheme (CACS) demonstrates mediators' use of argument behavior to facilitate or control the manner in which mediation parties argued their positions. Data were collected from a community mediation program located in the southwestern United States. Forty mediation sessions, each having a single mediator, were videotaped and transcribed. Results revealed eight mediator argument tactics that reflect a facilitative strategy and three argument tactics that represent a controlling strategy. Discussion focuses on how the CACS can demonstrate ways in which mediators promote disputants' idea development or, in some cases, impede participants' use of argument to make known their ideas.

Mandatory pre‐suit mediation: Local malpractice reform benefiting patients and healthcare providers

The Florida Patient Safety and Pre-Suit Mediation Program (FLPSMP) was implemented as a pilot program to provide patients of healthcare providers and facilities associated with the University of Florida Health Science Center with timely and fair compensation when injured and to combat rising healthcare legal liability expenses. Prior to filing a formal lawsuit, participants of the FLPSMP join in a confidential and nonbinding pre-suit mediation conducted by a neutral third-party mediator. The process fosters confidential and candid communication between doctors and patients, saving thousands of dollars in legal expenses for both patients and providers.

Texas launches new hurricane insurance mediation program

AbstractRiccardo Buizza, of Milan, Italy, updates the status of legislation on new Italian class action and mediation laws. Also: a new Texas‐sponsored hurricane relief mediation program opens.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Cultural Approaches to Understanding School Violence

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Cultural Approaches to Understanding School Violence

Types of Complaints Eligibile for Police Mediation

Although a number of studies have analyzed ADR programs in the court and general contexts, very little quantitative analysis of police mediation system design exists, particularly regarding the types of complaints that are considered appropriate for mediation. The academic literature on police mediation has merely attempted to summarize the personal opinions of experienced mediators, taken somewhat extreme theoretical positions, or rehashed this data while trying to fit it into generalized mediation theory. As civilian agencies for processing civilian complaints against police officers have been in existence for, in some cases, over 25 years, this may seem surprising. However, many civilian oversight agencies did not initially have a formal mediation program (most still do not), and the number of complaints referred to mediation, even in the oldest programs, remained low until the last five to ten years. Thus, the amount of data available on mediation has probably not been sufficient, until recently, to support a statistically significant analysis of the relationship between the fundamental nature of a complaint and an eventual successful outcome in mediation, however one chooses to define that success. Though this article does not perform such an analysis, it will attempt to offer more detailed hypotheses regarding the types of complaints that are appropriate for mediation in the context of law enforcement. The bases of these hypotheses in many cases are data collected in studies of community or court mediation programs. Most existing data deals with non-criminal matters, but several studies have examined mediation in the context of criminal allegations by a complainant.

Why Servicers Foreclose When They Should Modify and Other Puzzles of Servicer Behavior: Servicer Compensation and its Consequences

This paper analyzes the complex web of financial and legal incentives that shape how servicers respond to requests for mortgage modifications. The paper notes that the interests of the people deciding whether or not to modify loans, the servicers, are not the same as the investors, and that servicers, even when they are divisions of large banks, have different interests and incentives than investors.The paper starts with the observation that permanent modifications are not keeping pace with foreclosures and that even temporary modifications under the government's Making Home Affordable Program are a tiny fraction of the seriously delinquent loans - despite significant monetary incentives to modify loans. The paper focuses on the distinct incentives servicers have to foreclose or modify. Servicers, unlike lenders or investors, often profit from a foreclosure and almost always lose some money from a modification. Under the existing incentive scheme, servicers generally lose the most money on the most sustainable modifications - principal reductions - but can also lose significant amounts of money from any permanent and sustainable modification. The paper concludes that the servicers' legal and financial incentives bias servicers to foreclose instead of modify, even when investors would profit more from a modification than a foreclosure, and that the incentives further skew servicers toward temporary modifications and away from permanent, sustainable modifications, without regard to the financial interests of investors.The paper makes several recommendations, key among them requiring a halt to the foreclosure process pending an evaluation as to whether or not a modification is financially feasible. Such a halt would preserve the interests of homeowners and investors and would encourage servicers to expedite loan modification reviews. The paper additionally recommends greater uniformity and transparency in accounting standards for modifications, so that investors can exercise more meaningful control over servicer failure to perform modifications; review of existing accounting standards that discourage permanent modifications and require individualized review; increased standardization and automation in the loan modification process; funding and standard-setting for mediation programs; regulation of default fees; mandated principal reductions as part of the HAMP waterfall; and promotion of responsible lending at origination.

Quantifying the Quality of Mediation Agreements

AbstractFor workplace mediation programs, success is most often measured by assessing the agreement rate. However, it is unlikely that all signed agreements are of equal quality. Starting with the principle that the “success” of a mediation program cannot be limited to its agreement rate, we designed a study to assess the quality of mediation agreements. This article uses a questionnaire based on a five‐dimension framework (mediator’s usefulness, procedural justice, satisfaction with agreement, confidence in agreement, and reconciliation between parties) to conduct a cluster analysis of a sample of agreements from a governmental mediation program. Three types of agreement are identified: disappointing, satisfactory, and value‐added agreements. The study’s theoretical contributions as well as its practical implications for mediators and mediation programs are discussed.

Accessing Justice Through Mediation: Pathways for Poor and Low-Income Disputants

This Study was undertaken because of a conundrum. On the one hand, the Illinois Equal Justice Act (IEJA) states that mediation is an efficient way to resolve disputes and provides financial support for mediation programs involving poor and low-income residents of Illinois.1 On the other hand, funding through the IEJA is limited to programs that are described in the Illinois Not-for-Profit Dispute Resolution Center Act (DRCA).2 While the intent of the IEJA is to promote the use of mediation, it restricts the manner in which mediation can be used. If mediation is an efficient way to resolve disputes, should it be limited to one model? Is that working? Are there more models that would improve the ability of the Act to accomplish its mission while maintaining quality? This Study explores these questions in an effort to find in what way or ways mediation can be an effective path to justice for poor and low-income disputants in Illinois.

NEED TO BE HEARD: INCREASING CHILD PARTICIPATION IN PROTECTION MEDIATION THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MODEL STANDARDS*

There are more than three million reports of abuse and neglect each year. Some children may enter the court system while others will voluntarily or by court order enter a mediation program. What these children have in common is these youths are often removed from their home and placed in foster or institutional care without ever expressing their wishes or concerns. This Note advocates for the adoption of model standards drafted to ensure universal and meaningful child participation. The Model Standards are set forth in detail and accompanied by useful tips on their implementation. Through the course of this Note, the benefits of child participation are outlined, as are the reasons most often given for denying children the opportunity to meaningfully participate. The Note concludes with an explanation of how the benefits derived from implementing these standards far outweigh any potential negative side effects.

The politics of community mediation: A study of community mediation in Israel

AbstractWhat is community mediation (CM), and how does it affect communities? Drawing on research that examined the politics of CM in the context of a complex, multicultural setting, this article portrays CM as a multifaceted discourse that stakeholders may use to achieve their particular goals. CM, it is suggested, is linked to multiple sources of power and is used by both state and residents to make contesting social claims. This article challenges the apolitical view of CM and its capacity to explain the complex character of power. It proposes considering CM from another perspective, suggesting that examining CM as discourse enables a broader understanding of its social role and significance and facilitates development of appropriate practice. The author suggests that to be socially meaningful CM should be practiced within a broader approach, in terms of social intervention, based on informed, context‐related training and practice. Such an approach requires that the role, policies, and practices of community mediation programs (CMPs), and mediators' roles and training, be reconsidered.

“What! What kind of apology is this?”: The nature of apology in victim offender mediation

This qualitative study examined the multiple perspectives of participants' experiences of a Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) program operating in a Midwestern city. Thirty-four face-to-face interviews were conducted with 37 participants, including juvenile offenders and their parents, adult crime victims, mediators, and referral sources. The findings indicate disparities exist between the juvenile offenders and their victims in their perceptions of the genuineness of the apology delivered. The nature of apology is explored and its meaning in the restorative justice context is set out. This study provides a snapshot of the process and practice of restorative justice work. In particular, this study highlights the complicated nature of communication between and among VOM participants. Recommendations are made to improve victim-sensitive restorative justice practices through the composition and delivery of the apology.

Prevention of Aggressive Behavior in Elementary Schools: Gender-related Effects of a Peer Mediation Program

Prevention of Aggressive Behavior in Elementary Schools: Gender-related Effects of a Peer Mediation Program

WHAT WE KNOW NOW: FINDINGS FROM DEPENDENCY MEDIATION RESEARCH

After approximately 15 years of research on court‐based dependency mediation programs, answers have emerged for many, but not all, of the questions that surround dependency mediation. This article explores what has been learned about court‐based dependency mediation through research and what new and persisting questions remain. The article reviews empirical studies of child protection mediation. The topics considered include what we have learned about the organization and structure of mediation programs, what have we learned about settlement in mediation, and whether there are benefits to mediation beyond the mere fact that settlements are reached.

CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION: THE COOK COUNTY ILLINOIS EXPERIENCE—A JUDGE'S PERSPECTIVE

The Child Protection Mediation Program in Cook County, Illinois is the result of a collaborative effort on the part of the court, its stakeholders, and the attorneys involved in child protection cases. Child protection mediation empowers families and includes parents in many decisions impacting their children. It also helps judges to move children's cases through the legal system more rapidly and in a more efficient and humane manner. This results in children achieving more timely permanency. The program is sustained in part due to frequent outreach to, and input from, the program's consumers. These help to ensure that the program is meeting the diverse needs of the court, the families, and the professionals involved in the cases.

SUPPORTING FAMILY STRENGTH: THE USE OF TRANSFORMATIVE MEDIATION IN A PINS MEDIATION CLINIC

This article describes, and explains the rationales for, the establishment of an innovative program in which a law school and two social services agencies are collaborating in a mediation clinic that uses the transformative model of mediation to serve clients in cases that seem ideally suited to benefit from this approach to practice—so‐called “PINS” (persons in need of supervision) cases involving conflict within families, between parents and their adolescent children. The article first describes the evolution of the PINS system and the changing views of its purpose, especially in New York State. It then offers a brief introduction to the unique features of the transformative approach to mediation and explains why that approach in particular is likely to mesh with current understandings of the needs of the families involved in these cases. Finally, the article describes the innovative “Family Solutions Program” and how it uses transformative mediation to help these families and suggests that experience of this program shows how use of the transformative model, in particular, could be valuable not only for clinical education but also for effective volunteer training and supervision in mediation programs generally.

A GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION: LESSONS FROM 25 YEARS OF PRACTICE

What are the essential elements of a successful child protection mediation program? What outcomes are we seeking? How do we define success? How do these inform or direct program development so that it supports these outcomes? How do we know if it is working? And, how do we start out on the right foot? We are in the enviable position now, after 25 or so years, to benefit from lessons learned from the experiences of many programs. This article provides a 25‐year perspective on key elements that have contributed to the success of child protection mediation programs.

BUILDING A CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION PROGRAM IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Effective implementation of mediation programs on a large scale is a complex challenge. This article describes the process of design and implementation of a child protection mediation model and highlights the challenges and successes involved in leading fundamental culture shifts within the child welfare system over a period of eleven years.