National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

211 E. Ontario St., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611
tel 312-915-0195, fax 312-915-0187

For Immediate Release

NEW MEDIATION ACT APPROVED
National Conference and American Bar Association Join in Drafting Effort

August 16, 2001—After four years of research, drafting, and revising, a new statute dealing with the issues of confidentiality and privileges in mediation has been completed. The Uniform Mediation Act (UMA), drafted as a collaborative effort between the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the American Bar Association (ABA) Section on Dispute Resolution, was approved today by NCCUSL at its 110th annual meeting in West Virginia.

"There has been enormous growth in mediation of private and business disputes," says Michael B. Getty, a retired judge from Chicago who is now a full-time mediator and arbitrator, and chair of the UMA drafting committee. "Though there are literally thousands of statutes governing the rules of mediation, few of them are comprehensive. The Uniform Mediation Act will provide the states with clear guidelines on the very important issues of confidentiality and privileges."

Current rules on mediation can be found in more than 2,500 state and federal statutes; more than 250 of these deal with issues of confidentiality and privileges alone. Variations within the law are extensive, leading to confusion and uncertainty for mediators, lawyers and their clients. Some states provide no protection at all for mediation.

The primary focus of the UMA is limited — to provide a privilege that assures confidentiality of the mediation in later legal proceedings. The act establishes a privilege of confidentiality for mediators and participants that prohibits what is said during mediation from being used in later legal proceedings.

However, there are exceptions to the privilege, such as when threats are made to inflict bodily harm or other violent crime, when parties attempt to use mediation to plan or commit a crime, when the information is needed to prove or disprove allegations of child abuse or neglect,or when the information is needed to prove or disprove a claim or complaint of professional misconduct by a mediator.

In addition to ensuring confidentiality in the mediation process, the act further intends to promote the integrity of mediation by requiring the disclosure of known conflicts of interest, as well as disclosure of the mediator's qualifications.

The UMA does not apply to collective bargaining disputes, some judicial settlement conferences, or mediation involving parties who are all minors.

The UMA drafting committee was chaired by Michael B. Getty of Chicago, and worked in conjunction with a drafting committee of the American Bar Association, co-chaired by Roberta Cooper Ramo of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of Columbus, Ohio. Other committee members included: Phillip Carroll, Little Rock, Arkansas; Stanley M. Fisher, Cleveland, Ohio; Elizabeth Kent, Honolulu, Hawaii; Byron D. Sher, Sacramento, California; Martha Lee Walters, Eugene, Oregon; and Joan Zeldon, Washington, DC. American Bar Association Members included: Jose Feliciano, Cleveland, Ohio; and Frank E.A. Sander, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The reporters for the drafting committee were Richard C. Reuben, Columbia, Missouri; and Nancy H. Rogers, Columbus, Ohio.

For more information about this drafting project, a web site has been established at: http://www.pon.harvard.edu/guests/uma/main.htm . The site has frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the project, press releases, drafts, and biographical information about committee members.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is› now in its 110th year. The organization comprises more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to draft proposals for uniform and model laws and work toward their enactment in their legislatures. Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.

For further information, please contact John McCabe or Katie Robinson at (312) 915-0195 or Gabrielle Bamberger at (212)333-5222. Also check the NCCUSL website at www.nccusl.org