Foreclosure Mediation

Overview: Residential mortgage foreclosure mediation programs provide a neutral forum for residential borrower-homeowners and their lenders to avoid foreclosure by working out new mortgage terms or other agreements mutually acceptable to both parties.

American Bar Association:  On August 4, 2009 the ABA House of Delegates adopted Resolution 300.  The resolution supports federal, state or territorial legislation, regulations, or court rules that promote the use of mediation to assist in resolving disputes that could lead to foreclosure of mortgages on residential real property, and foreclosure cases that are already pending in federal, state or territorial courts and promotes access to pro-bono or low cost counsel or other advocates for parties who would otherwise be unrepresented in the mediation.

Foreclosure Mediation and Mitigation Program Models

Compiled By Heather Scheiwe Kulp
Updated as of May 17, 2011

Description
Click here for a state-by-state guide to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms used to deal with the recent growth in residential foreclosures. Many of the programs use mediation, defined as a negotiation process facilitated by a third-person neutral.[1] Some of the programs use mitigation processes that do not involve a third-person neutral, but are valuable as examples of how jurisdictions with limited resources may make use of alternative processes.

Throughout the document, “lender” connotes any person who, at mediation, represents the party who originated or holds the mortgage, though the original lender may no longer hold the mortgage note, those who hold the note may not be banks and the representative at the table may only be a servicer for back-end investors. I use “borrower” to connote the person who took out the original mortgage.

Any blank categories in the program descriptions indicate that the particular program does not offer those services or, in the case of statistics, has not published any.