RSI's Blog Posts
RSI’s Just Court ADR blog regularly features articles about eviction mediation efforts across the country and considerations for eviction mediation program development.
Samples and Templates
COURT RULES
- 16th Circuit Court of Illinois Local Rule 9A – RSI, its partners and the court in Kane County, Illinois, worked together to develop the rules for our eviction mediation program.
AGREEMENT AND OTHER FORM TEMPLATES
- Illinois Standardized Forms for Eviction – The Illinois Supreme Court developed this agreed order form to be used in all local circuit courts.
- Michigan Order Form – This consent order for conditional dismissal has been approved for use in all Michigan circuit courts by the state’s Supreme Court Administrative Office.
- Sample Agreement Forms from Ohio – The Supreme Court of Ohio provided these sample forms as part of a larger report on evictions in 2020.
NOTICES
- Kane County, Illinois, Eviction Mediation Notice – This notice is included with the summons that all defendants in an eviction proceeding receive. The notice is also available in Spanish.
- Jackson County, Michigan, Eviction Diversion Program Notice – This is another example of a notice informing parties of the availability of an ADR option and how it works.
PARTICIPANT SURVEYS
RSI created the following survey instruments for use in our Kane County, Illinois eviction mediation program.
Additional Resources
Addressing the Eviction Crisis and Housing Instability Through Mediation
This article discusses a decade-old eviction mediation program in St. Louis County, Missouri and covers how the program works, explores data collected from the program, and the documented benefits that have accrued to participants. The program was developed as a result of a partnership between the Washington University School of Law Civil Rights & Mediation Clinic and the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council. Data from 2018 reveals that unlike cases that went to trial (which were significantly more likely to end in eviction), 71% of mediated cases resulted in a settlement. For more about this study, see RSI’s blog post about it by RSI Director of Research, Jennifer Shack.
American Bar Association COVID-19 Task Force Eviction Committee
The task force’s website is another excellent compendium of great resources on nationwide eviction efforts.
Eviction Diversion Diagnostic Tool
This National Center for State Courts resource is a helpful interactive tool to assist your court in assessing its need for eviction diversion efforts. With a better understanding of your court's needs, you may be able to better utilize the resources provided in this Special Topic. The linked article above also contains other valuable resources from NCSC and others.
Eviction Prevention and Diversion Programs - Early Lessons from the Pandemic
This Urban Institute report includes information on 47 state and local programs from across the U.S. that are characterized as eviction prevention and diversion programs. The report provides a variety of information about the programs including key features, program components, program design, challenges faced, outcome tracking, and lessons learned.
Getting Landlords and Tenants to Talk
This Urban Institute report explores the use of mediation in eviction cases. To gather research, authors interviewed representatives from 14 organizations involved in mediation programming to discuss the mediation process in housing court, identify how programs recruit mediation participants, examine partnerships needed to make mediation successful, and discuss what prevents programs from expanding their services.
Justice Served, Housing Preserved: The Ramsey County Housing Court
This study explores the program design, successes and challenges of a housing court eviction program in St. Paul, MN. Launched in 2018, the program set out with the goal to reduce evictions by 50% in five years. To reach this goal, the court implemented a number of procedural changes, improved coordination among government entities, and expanded access to mediation and legal studies. For more about this study, see RSI’s blog post about it by RSI Director of Research, Jennifer Shack.
The Supreme Court of Ohio Evictions Report & Recommendations, July 2020
In anticipation of the increase in evictions cases related to COVID-19, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor directed the Office of Court Services to convene stakeholders to analyze projected caseloads, create strategies for backlogs, and modernize court operations through technology. The discussion and recommendations include recommendations for eviction mediation and settlement sessions; technology and access to courts; and increasing capacity for mediators. These recommendations balance the backlog of cases, access to justice, and timely processing of cases.