Thursday December 31, 2009

Section BUSINESS

Page 10

High court's foreclosure ruling means more mediators needed

By SHANNON BEHNKEN

sbehnken@tampatrib.com

TAMPA - Lawyers and others are scrambling to become mediators after Monday's Florida Supreme Court order that foreclosure mediation be available for certain troubled homeowners.

"There's a lot of interest in this program," said Rod Petrey, president of the Tallahassee-based Collins Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit group that trains mediators and assigns them to cases. "We have a roster of hundreds of mediators, and they're all hungry for more work."

Chief Justice Peggy Quince issued the order to help handle Florida's...