High court's foreclosure ruling means more mediators needed

Lawyers and others are scrambling to become mediators after Monday's Florida Supreme Court order that foreclosure mediation be available for certain troubled homeowners.

"There's a lot of interest in this program," said Rod Petrey, president of the Tallahassee-based Collins Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit group that trains mediators and assigns them to cases. "We have a roster of hundreds of mediators, and they're all hungry for more work."

Chief Justice Peggy Quince issued the order to help handle Florida's glut of foreclosures. With an estimated 465,000 cases clogging the courts system, mediation may help resolve some cases early in the process.

The order applies to new foreclosure lawsuits and requires that homeowners of primary residences be given the opportunity to have their case go to mediation with a third party.

The goal is to work something out between the homeowner and the lender to avoid foreclosure.

Choosing a mediator will be up to a judge, although the borrower and lender can request one. Judges typically work with nonprofit organizations, such as the Collins Center, to assign mediators to cases.

Mediators participating in this program will have to be certified by the Supreme Court and then participate in special foreclosure training. Mediation costs no more than $750, and about $350 of that typically goes to the mediator.

Although many mediators are lawyers, that is not a requirement under Florida law. Petrey said many mediators have backgrounds in personal finance, banking or social service.

The order was the result of recommendations made by a Supreme Court task force that studied the issue. As part of that study, the Collins Center handled mediation for three of Florida's 20 court circuits during a six-month period.

More than 20,000 potential mediations were referred to the center during that time, but only half of the homeowners chose the process. Of those cases, mediators were successful in working out a deal with lenders and homeowners in about 65 percent of the situations.

Shari Olefson, a mediator and Tampa real estate lawyer with Fowler, White and Boggs, said she worries that too many inexperienced mediators will jump into the business.

"Having a mediator who knows what they're doing is like having a judge who knows what they're doing," she said.