Mediation News

Dale Launches Mississippi Mediation Program for Katrina Victims

Jackson –Commissioner of Insurance George Dale announced today that the Mississippi Department of Insurance (MID) has adopted an emergency regulation for the creation of a mediation program for Mississippi victims of Hurricane Katrina. The regulation became effective Tuesday, December 20, 2005, which means mediation conferences could begin as early as late January 2006.

The program will serve as a non-adversarial, non-binding, alternative dispute resolution procedure designed to facilitate the resolution of claims as quickly and fairly as possible. Mediation will be available to all first party claimants who have a disputed claim resulting from damage to residential property. A disputed claim means a claim in which the difference between the position of the insured and insurer is at least $500. The regulation applies to the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, to licensed insurers, and surplus lines insurers that provide personal residential property coverage in Mississippi. If an insured elects to mediate, insurance companies are required to participate in the mediation program. The emergency regulation does NOT apply to commercial insurance claims, private passenger motor vehicle insurance, liability coverage contained in property insurance policies or to National Flood Insurance Program policies.

“Thousands of residential property claims remain unresolved. In some cases, claims have been denied, and in others, there have been disparities between the repair estimates of insurers and contractors. Insureds with unresolved claims and unrepaired residences continue to face severe hardship. In order to meet this critical need for effective, fair and timely handling of residential insurance claims, the Mississippi Insurance Department has adopted this regulation to help homeowners move forward with the repair and rebuilding process,” said Dale. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has been selected by MID to serve as the Administrator to oversee the day-to-day operations of the mediation program. AAA is a non profit organization which has specialized in providing dispute resolution services since 1926. They have over 30 office locations, 700 employees and case filings of approximately 170,000 per year. AAA is cited in 40 federal statutes and regulations and is named in over 300 state statutes and regulations. They have also been chosen to administer a similar mediation program in Louisiana.

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	Mediation has many qualities that make it appealing. In most cases, mediation is: conciliatory fair quick inexpensive voluntary confidential Mediation also has several key benefits. It promotes: greater participant control customized agreements workable decisions mutually satisfactory outcomes improved relationships high rates of compliance decisions that hold up over time