Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

The opportunity to participate in mandatory mediation and other requirements are being imposed on mortgage lenders and servicers, as well as on the foreclosure process in an effort to tame the housing crisis. This article discusses these developments and how they complicate the problem.

It is no secret that the housing crisis is a drag on the economy—one that appears to have no quick and easy fix. President Barack Obama’s recent announcement that his administration would revise the underutilized Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was the latest hint of a new federal effort to assist homeowners with underwater mortgages.1 This announcement comes on the heels of increasingly inventive, and, for mortgage lenders and servicers expensive, state and local legislative initiatives with the same ends. Since November 2008, 39 states have enacted more than 140 foreclosure-related measures.