THE RESOLUTION REPORT ONLINE
December 2006 - Volume 21, Number 4
News on Dispute Resolution trends, laws and ethics
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| The opinions of the Mediator Ethics
Advisory Committee are rendered pursuant to the authority of rule
10.900, Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators,
and are based on the specific facts outlined in the question. They
are based on the Committee's interpretation of the rules in effect
on the date the opinions were rendered. The summary of each opinion
has been prepared for quick reference. Any inconsistency between
the summary and the opinion should be resolved in favor of the opinion. |
| Mediator
Ethics Advisory Committee issued the following opinions since the
last Resolution Report: Click on the number to go to the full
Opinion. |
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A and C: If a party is requesting that the mediation be rescheduled for “good cause,” the mediation should be rescheduled to a mutually convenient time consistent with rule 10.330(a). If the party is objecting to attending mediation, the mediator cannot compel attendance, however, the party should be advised that pursuant to rule 12.741(b)(2), the party may be subject to sanctions by the court for “nonappearance.”
B: A report to the court regarding nonappearance should not include any reason for the nonappearance.
D: A date for mediation may be set without the advance agreement of all parties, but then any party would be permitted to request that it be rescheduled.
E: A mediator may report non-appearance at a mediation if the mediator gave the non-appearing party due notice of the date and time for the mediation session and good cause was not shown for rescheduling. ” |
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If the quotation provided is the complete advertisement and the telephone number relates to a person (or company) that does provide mediation services[“Got Conflict…Mediate, Divorce through mediation contested or uncontested. Call 555-5555”], it does not violate the mediator’s ethical standard for advertising. However, if the advertising mediator is not competent to mediate the cases advertised, or if there were additional text which was false or misleading, the advertisement would violate rule 10.610. |
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Given the judge’s intervention, the mediator must carefully monitor the parties’ participation in the mediation to ascertain the parties’ ability to exercise self-determination and must be prepared to terminate the mediation if any party is unable or unwilling to participate meaningfully in the process. A mediator is not relieved of ethical responsibilities by writing the “agreement” up as a “scrivener.”
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A) Yes, it would be an ethical violation to report to the court that a party did not have full settlement authority. Under the circumstances presented, the mediator is limited to reporting that no agreement was reached.
B) No, the parties’ signatures on the stipulation form are insufficient to authorize a mediator to disclose otherwise confidential information. |
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A certified mediator is subject to a good moral character requirement and is prohibited from performing any act which would compromise the mediator’s integrity; however, there is no general prohibition regarding a mediator exhibiting behavior “unbecoming” a mediator. In addition, the actions of an attorney or a party in a mediation, cannot be judged as if they were those of a mediator. |
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Based on the facts of the question, the filing of a grievance with The Florida Bar does not appear to be prohibited by the statutory and rule confidentiality requirements. W hether the reporting of the attorney litigant’s action is prohibited is beyond the scope of the Committee’s function since it would involve an interpretation of the attorney ethics code. |
