The Court adopted a rule temporarily modifying mediation training requirements during the pandemic.

The Court adopted a rule temporarily modifying mediation training requirements during the pandemic.

The Ohio Supreme Court has adopted a rule temporarily revising the requirements for mediation training in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The temporary rule is aimed largely at the anticipated increase in foreclosure and eviction cases due to the joblessness in Ohio caused by the pandemic.

Court mediators will be allowed to mediate delinquency and foreclosure cases without completing the “Fundamentals of Mediation Training” course if they complete 10.25 hours of that course instead of the usually required 16 hours.

Similarly, mediators will be allowed to begin eviction and general civil cases if they have completed at least 6.25 hours of the “Settlement Event Mediation Training” course.

Under the existing mediation rules, court mediators are not required to complete “Fundamentals of Mediation Training” if they have completed certain other training courses or have enrolled in a law school clinical mediation or dispute resolution program.

“These temporary rules provide mediators an additional way to help litigants and serve courts during these unprecedented times,” said Cathy Geyer, manager of Dispute Resolution Programs at the Ohio Supreme Court.