Assignment: Assignment 3
Jack and Jill, residents of Orlando, FL, had a nasty incident involving a hill, some water and a broken crown, in which both parties got hurt. Jack and Jill ended up suing each other in Florida state court. After a few months of nasty motion practice, Jill comes to your office and tells you that she's heard of this wonderful thing called mediation, under which she and Jack could be helped to reach a settlement. She has a few questions for you about mediation, all under Florida law:

1) Can she ask the court to order the parties to mediation if Jack refuses to go? If so, under what circumstances will the court do so?
Answer- Jill can ask the court to order the parties to mediation if Jack refuses to go under …show more content…

jurisdiction; 2) observe 4 dependency mediations conducted by certified dependency mediator; 3) conduct 2 dependency mediations supervised by certified mediator; and 4) 20 hours of certified training if a certified family mediator who has mediated 4 dependency cases, otherwise 40 hours. Sources: http://www.tfapm.org/Drc/drc_rules.shtml;http://www.flcourts.org/osca/divisions/adr/Certrules.html

3) If Jack doesn't show up to the mediation proceeding, what can the court do to "convince" Jack to grace the proceeding with his presence?

Answer – The courts could advise Jack of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure which states:
RULE 1.720 Mediation Procedures (b) Sanctions for Failure to Appear. If a party fails to appear at a duly noticed mediation conference without good cause, the court upon motion shall impose sanctions, including an award of mediator and attorneys' fees and other costs, against the party failing to appear.

4) If the mediation fails, will the mediator be able to tell the judge what went wrong and how the case might be settled?
Answer – In the state of Florida the mediator will be able to tell the judge because if the parties are court ordered to mediation and the mediator is unable to settle the parties differences, the mediator will go back to the court and the judge (or jury) will make a decision for you. Retrieved from on March 18, 2016 http://www.flcourts.org/resources-and-services/alternative-dispute-resolution/mediation.stml