Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program offers free training for volunteers
Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program offers free training for volunteers
Arbitrators and mediators who work with the Bar’s Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program are being offered free separate two-hour training programs by The Standing Committee on Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration on January 17 at the Bar’s Winter Meeting. The arbitration training carries two hours of CLE credit and the mediator program has two hours of CLE/CME (including CME ethics) credit.
The arbitration training will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the mediation training will be from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Each of these training modules is specifically geared for training volunteers in the Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program under Chapter 14, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.
The arbitration training will be taught by Meah Tell, a former chair of the Bar’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Section and former president of the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators. She has served on three Supreme Court alternative dispute resolution-related committees: ADR Rules and Policy Committee, Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee, and the Mediation Training Review Board. She has also been an adjunct professor at the Sheppard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University, where she taught a mediation seminar for five years.
She has organized and presented numerous mediation and arbitration seminars on behalf of the ADR Section, the ABA, law schools, and numerous local bar associations.
The mediation training will be conducted by Charles Castagna who has worked as a full-time mediator and mediator trainer since 1994. He has mediated in state and federal courts in virtually every applicable area of law from franchise disputes to civil rights to real estate and securities. He is a former adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law and has been a trainer for the circuit civil mediation training program at the University of South Florida.
Castagna has served on the Supreme Court’s Mediation and Arbitration Rules Committee, has been president of the Florida Association of Professional Family Mediators and the Florida Academy of Professional mediators, and served on the Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee. He is currently on the ADR Rules and Policy Committee. He has conducted seminars for the Bar, several local bar associations, and private law firms.
The Florida Bar established the Grievance Mediation and Fee Arbitration Program in 2004. Both programs are governed by Rule 14 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. These voluntary programs are offered as a service to the public and Bar members, so there is no charge for participation. Since the Bar does not charge the participants, it must seek out volunteer mediators and arbitrators to handle these matters. The program is always seeking volunteer arbitrators and mediators throughout the state for both programs and both Bar members and non-Bar mediators are eligible to serve.
Anyone interested in volunteering for the program should contact Susan Austin at The Florida Bar, [email protected]. Those wishing to take the free courses should contact Sergio Botero at 850-561-3166 or [email protected].
