Over the past few months I spent a good amount of my mediation time concentrating on settling collection cases. These cases varied from simple credit card companies trying to collect from their debtors to complex B2B cases and everything in between. This is a short summary of my observations:
The Good
People and companies are extremely receptive to settling their cases without resorting to the adversarial alternative of going to court.
The Bad
The economical state of our nation has degraded to a point where individuals in debt are unable to come up with the funds necessary for settlement; regardless of the terms of the settlements, such as a structured payment plan or a lump-sum resolution.
The Debt
The Catch 22 becomes that individuals which are unable to settle will have their wages garnished due to a judgment granted against them, thus having many of these consumers loose their homes, etc. These conditions force individuals to choose the lesser of two evils and in turn having to have to borrow money from third-party sources in order to keep their salaries and settle their lawsuits. Of course, doing so, gets them deeper into debt.
Solution?
...open to comments.
RTM was established not only to provide affordable mediation services, but also to educate the public, and to introduce the advantages and benefits of this alternative dispute resolution. In 2007 RTM merged with American Mediation and history in virtual alternative dispute resolution was made.
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