Opinion ID: 1712746
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: mediator standards of professional conduct

Text: The Committee's proposed amendments to the ethical rules are the result of a two-year program of public hearings, public drafting sessions, state-wide advance publication, and two separate mailings of initial drafts. Input was received from the Mediator Qualifications Board, the Supreme Court Committee on Mediation and Arbitration Training, the Mediator Qualifications Advisory Panel, the Committee from the Florida Association of Professional Family Mediators, the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators, the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, and the Trial Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar. The proposed changes to the ethical rules amount to a complete rewrite of the existing rules. In addition to revising the text of individual ethical rules, the Committee has reorganized the grouping and order of the rules, moved ethical concepts between rules, renumbered the rules, and created several new rules. The ethical standards for mediators, which are grouped according to specific areas of a mediator's ethical responsibilities, are outlined below.