NCJ Number
92368
Editor(s)
L Ray,
P B Kestner,
L Freedman,
A E Clare
Date Published
1983
Length
105 pages
Annotation
A panel representing academic, public, and private sectors, the bar association, and mediation programs addressed legal issues concerning mediation, such as confidentiality, liability of mediators, due process, and enforceability of agreements, as well as State dispute resolution legislation.
Abstract
Following introductory remarks by American Bar Association (ABA) officials, representatives from California's Marin County Mediation Services presented a mock mediation of a landlord-tenant dispute. They also answered questions on the types of cases they handled and costs of mediation. A professor from Harvard Law School used a hypothetical case history to demonstrate the legal issues that can arise in mediation proceedings and their consequent agreements. The first panel member, an attorney and mediator, felt that many genuine mediation issues were being ignored in legal discussions such as lack of ethical training and practice guidelines, the need for mediation by the private as well as the public sector, and the extent to which mediation is used as substitute justice for minor disputes and for poor people. A representative from the American Arbitration Association had encountered very few legal problems in his arbitration activities. A court administrator from Oklahoma described his court's successful mediation program, noting that its voluntary nature generally precluded legal difficulties. Another speaker expressed concern about the negative effects of overregulation on mediation and stated that legal problems seldom arose if cases were handled properly. The question of whether legal issues are bogus or legitimate was addressed by an ABA staff member who agreed that legal issues do not arise in most mediation cases, but noted that they can threaten a program's existence when they do. The document summarizes the concluding discussion and includes a paper on the confidentiality issue that identifies legal tools mediators can use to defend themselves.