Florida Mediator Rule Changes Coming

The Supreme Court of Florida's Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy (Rules and Policy Committee) today invited all interested persons to comment on proposed amendments to small claims, county, civil, family, juvenile, and appellate state court rules of procedure regarding mediation. According to the Rules and Policy Committee, the amendments are intended to protect the public by ensuring that any individual who mediates cases pending before any state court shall be subject to the ethical standards and discipline procedures in the Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators. The amendments originated as Rules and Policy Committee work product that was circulated to the ADR community in 2017. The Executive Council of the ADR Section of The Florida Bar deliberated on this matter then and voted in favor of a mandatory certification for court connected cases. However, after receiving feedback and engaging in its own careful deliberation, the Rules and Policy Committee revised its proposal to meet the interests of both the ADR and legal communities while continuing to meet the goals of the Long-Range Strategic Plan for the Florida Judicial Branch 2016-2021, to “maintain a professional, ethical and skilled judiciary and workforce.” The 2017 amendments proposed that all pending court cases be mediated by a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator. The 2019 amendments are now offered instead of those amendments. The amendment to each set of procedural rules will require that any mediator who mediates a state court action does so subject to the ethical standards the Supreme Court has imposed on all certified and court-appointed mediators irrespective of whether the mediator is certified, non-certified, or court-appointed. All individuals who mediate cases pending before any state court shall be subject to discipline and the existing procedures. Please send comments for the Committee to the Florida Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) by July 8, 2019, to DRCmail@flcourts.org. You may comments send via mail to: Florida Dispute Resolution Center, Supreme Court Building, 500 S. Duval Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399; or fax at (850) 922-9290

International Arbitration in Florida

The Supreme Court of Florida last week approved a Florida Bar board certification specialist (BCS) program for international litigators and arbitrators due to Florida increasingly becoming an international arbitration hub. In a decade-long effort by the International Law Section to create a board certification program, international litigators and arbitrators now have a novel certification helping to position particularly Miami as an attractive place for foreign companies to resolve their disputes. To meet the requirements for board certification, practitioners will have to have a significant amount of experience and will have to submit references of arbitrators, judges and opposing counsel. Practitioners also will need to show that they have completed a certain number of hours of continuing legal education in the particular area. Finally, practitioners will have to take a lengthy exam. Another rules decision now allows foreign attorneys to work as authorized in-house counsel for companies in the state. Previously, only American attorneys could be in-house counsel, but companies often have foreign lawyers in-house if they are doing lots of foreign business. Reportedly, those attorneys would have run the risk of being subject to Florida Bar prosecutions for practicing law without a license. Communications between these in-house foreign attorneys and their companies in the event of litigation are also protected under the change when opposing counsel seek such communications, enabling businesses to hire the people they desire to advise them. As a sidebar, I recently attended our annual retreat of the Executive Council of our Florida Bar ADR Section where we discussed board certification for arbitrators and mediators by the bar for civil cases in the state. It was decided the section would discontinue pursuing such a specialization certification from the state bar in these forms of ADR, as it does not actually constitute the practice of law. Regardless, there are already a non-BCS certification for mediators and a qualification for domestic arbitrators by The Supreme Court of Florida. That court will soon decide if court connected cases require certified mediators be assigned. Stay tuned! See full news story here-- http://bit.ly/2zPfq1H and Supreme Court of Florida case In re: Amendments to the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar (Biennial Petition) SC16-1961 here-- http://bit.ly/2j0klVr

Comments Invited Following MEAC Rule Change

The Supreme Court of Florida recently adopted its Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy Committee's proposed amendments to Rule 10.910 of the Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators regarding composition of the Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee (MEAC). The Committee’s petition follows another recent opinion adopting changes, In re: amendments to the Florida Rules for Certified & Court-Appointed Mediators, 202 So. 3d 795 (Fla. 2016). New Rule 10.910(b) (Appointment) provides membership of MEAC shall be composed of nine members, two from each of the four divisions of the Mediator Qualifications and Discipline Review Board (MQDRB), and one member from any of the four divisions. Additionally, Rule 10.910(c) (Membership and Terms) now requires that the membership of MEAC shall include one county mediator, one family mediator, one circuit mediator, one dependency mediator, one appellate mediator, and four additional mediators who hold any type of Florida Supreme Court mediator certification. Finally, Rule 10.910(e) (Opinions) is amended to allow the Dispute Resolution Center greater latitude in publishing advisory opinions of MEAC. Because the amendments to Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators are effective immediately and were not published for comment prior to their adoption by the court, interested persons must now file any comments with the court on or before August 21, 2017, as well as a separate request for oral argument if the person filing the comment wishes to participate in oral argument, which may be scheduled in this case. The Committee Chair then has until September 11, 2017, to file a response to any comments filed with the court. See full opinion here-- http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2017/sc17-935.pdf

AHLA Amends Arbitration Rules

The American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) developed the first national roster of arbitrators, mediators, and hearing officers with health law expertise. It remains the only national service dedicated exclusively to resolving disputes in the health care industry. Its board approved amendments to the current rules, which will take effect on March 14, 2016. These are the key substantive changes:

Default Timeframe: The goal is now to issue a final award in twelve months, not eight.

Filing Fee for Counterclaim: To file a counterclaim or third party claim, a party must now pay the same amount as the fee for filing the claim. 

Sanctions for Non-Payment: Arbitrators are now explicitly authorized to sanction a party who fails to pay a deposit, unless the failure is due to financial hardship. 

Filing Fees for Consumers: Consumers no longer must pay a filing fee if a claim is submitted pursuant to a court order. The respondent must pay this fee instead.

The new rules are posted on the AHLA website here-- www.healthlawyers.org