Read Related Article ~ Saturday 1/12/12
Daytona Beach News Journal
Local Firm Launches
New Mediation Foreclosure Program
Daytona Beach, Fla., January 12, 2012 -- Upchurch Watson White & Max, a mediation specialty firm and national leader in alternative dispute resolution, has created a statewide mediation program for all foreclosures not governed by a local administrative order. Developed as a fast-track 90-day program (“the UWWM Program”), the new streamlined process offers lenders and borrowers an alternative approach that makes efficient use of limited judicial and clerk resources, and allows lenders to have consistency and continuity in a state court system where some circuits still mandate mediation in foreclosure matters, while other neighboring circuits may not.
“We developed this program in direct response to the numerous requests we received from lenders, lenders’ attorneys, borrowers and borrowers’ attorneys after the Florida Supreme Court’s administrative order stopped mandating the mediation of homestead residential mortgage foreclosure actions. Our management of the 7th Judicial Circuit Court’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program gave us the direct insight and experience to develop an improved and comprehensive best-practices program that is efficient and results-oriented. There are judicial circuits around the state that are no longer governed by local administrative orders, and this program can serve to benefit the interests of homeowners and lenders,” said Sandra Upchurch, who helped create the UWWM Program.
“As emphasized in the U.S. Department of Justice’s 69-page foreclosure mediation report released this week, there is a very real, and ever growing, need to address foreclosures. Mediation proves to be an effective tool that provides necessary communication, facilitation and problem-solving between the parties. We are not seeing any signs that Florida’s mortgage crisis is diminishing, and our state needs the relief valve option that mediation can provide in order to prevent unmanageable courts dockets bogged down with unresolved foreclosures,” said John Upchurch, president of Upchurch Watson White & Max.
Procedures and guidelines for participating in the UWWM Program, along with more information, can be found at foreclosure.cfm
Upchurch Watson White & Max (www.uww-adr.com), a national leading mediation specialty firm, is known for facilitating reasonable agreements to resolve complex issues. From five offices in Florida and Alabama, Supreme Court certified attorney mediators with wide-ranging specialties serve as a court-appointed and privately employed mediator, arbitrator and third-party neutral case manager, implementing innovative methods of alternative dispute resolution across the country.
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