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Evaluating Bankruptcy Mediation, William J. Woodward Jr.

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Article aims to do several things. First, it will briefly describe a court sponsored mediation program developed several years ago by the court and bankruptcy bar in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The program depended on trained mediators who did their work on court-selected bankruptcy matters on a pro bono basis. Partly because of its "cost-free" nature, the program created a need for periodic evaluation to ensure the court and bar that it was delivering positive results without inflicting undesirable hidden costs on the participants or the local bankruptcy system as a whole.6