Florida Appellate Mediator Certification Changes

Under a new Administrative Order of The Supreme Court of Florida, No. AOSC19-26 governing certification of mediators, several changes to the continuing mediator education (CME) requirements have been implemented. News of the changes came to presently certified mediators via the Florida Dispute Resolution Center (DRC), including the removal of the four-hour appellate-specific CME requirement. I have been mediating appellate cases since 2001, before the statewide certification existed. In 2001, the Fifth District Court of Appeal instituted a pilot program referring appeals to mediation before the expense of briefing. The pilot was deemed a success by the court and adopted as a permanent program in 2004. The program is touted as achieving the goals of saving litigants time and money by resolving disputes more quickly and less expensively than the appeal process. This includes helping parties and counsel to narrow and clarify issues for appeal so that cases can be expedited. For many years, the results have hovered around a third of cases being resolved through the appellate mediation process. Those of us who participated as mediators were grandfathered into the statewide certification which requires four hours of initial instruction by a recognized DRC approved trainer. Until now, four additional hours of CME was required every two years for recertification. However, be advised that effective immediately, certified appellate mediators must maintain only a certification in either of family, circuit or dependency mediation and complete only the standard CME requirements in order to renew as a certified appellate mediator. See more here-- http://tiny.cc/1obh8y