In January, the Florida Supreme Court ordered mediation on all home foreclosure cases. According to Miami Today, less than half of homeowners in Miami-Dade County have complied with state-mandated mediation since January. Miami-Dade County is one of three Florida counties that ran a managed mediation pilot program prior to the state-mandated mediation order. The Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program administered by the non-profit Collins Center

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The Fifth Circuit has held that the question of arbitrability is for an arbitrator to decide where an arbitration agreement exists between the parties and they clearly intended for the issue to be arbitrated based on the wording of the arbitration provision. In Allen v. Regions Bank, No. 09-60705, (5th Cir., August 11, 2010), plaintiffs (the Allens) obtained a home equity loan from First American National Bank in October 1999. The bank withheld f

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Texas Bar Journal September 2010 | Volume 73, 8 This issue features an interesting article entitled “What You Always Wanted to Know About Arbitration” written by Scott D. Marrs and Sean P. Milligan. The article seeks to answer five key arbitration questions recently decided by the courts: 1. Can the parties agree that an arbitration award is appealable? In Hall Street Associates, Inc. v. Mattel, Inc., No. 06-989, 552 U.S. 576 (2008), the U.S. Sup

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The Third Circuit Court of Hawaii reported mid-year statistics for its Foreclosure Mediation Pilot Project (FMPP) in the Summer 2010 Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution Newsletter, ADR Times. Launched in November 2009, the FMPP allows borrower-occupants facing judicial foreclosure to request mediation through the program. Once a request is submitted to the court, the case is then scheduled for a judicial conference in which a judge determin

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