Proposal 

               In partnership with the Chattanooga Bar Association (CBA) and Hamilton County General Sessions Court (the Court), the Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI) coordinated and facilitated free and voluntary mediation services for landlords and tenants prior to a detainer (eviction) Court hearing, with the goal of improving outcomes for all parties. These services provided pre-filing and post-filing, and mirrored those programs used in nonprofit and bar association-sponsored community mediation centers throughout the state and country.

Background

               In June 2020, a court adjacent program, the Eviction Prevention Initiative (EPI), began serving tenants facing eviction with free legal representation, case management, and rent relief. The goals of this work were to decrease the number of evictions, increase housing stability, and to identify opportunities to improve the civil court experience for both landlords and tenants. 

               As a result of this work, relationships grew between all parties engaged with the detainer (eviction) docket and, in 2022, Hamilton County General Sessions Court became one of twelve state and local courts selected for a grant from the National Center for State Courts’ (NCSC) Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI) to strengthen eviction diversion efforts and improve housing stability across Hamilton County. Locally, the initiative included a Housing Stability Facilitator, who was employed by the City of Chattanooga and worked directly with the Court and its judges to assist landlords and tenants before eviction cases were adjudicated in court.

               Subsequent conversations between members of the EDI team, the CBA, and the Court indicated potential interest amongst the local bar to assist the EDI program in providing pro bono or “low bono” mediation services to landlords and tenants engaged in the EDI process. Thereafter, EDI team members began meeting with community mediation leaders throughout the state and country concerning possible mediation options to assist Hamilton County EDI participants.

Statistics Supporting the Need for this Program

                According to the City of Chattanooga Chief Housing Officer, fourteen new people moved to Hamilton County every day in 2023. According to numbers from the Greater Chattanooga Realtors, between the years 2012 and 2022, the median sales price in the area increased from $137,000 to $305,000, an increase of 122%.[1] Alongside this growth, Heyman also cites that, since 2020, the median rent in Chattanooga has increased 30% while the median income for renters has only increased 13%.[2]These significant shifts in housing prices without comparable increases in income for all residents, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, led local leaders and stakeholders to seek resources and collaboratively coordinate to launch two pilot programs focused on housing stability: The Eviction Prevention Initiative (EPI) and the Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI).

               The EPI program, housed at Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET), focuses on connecting tenants to free legal representation and, through the success of this initiative, landlords and property managers began to inquire about the potential of increasing diversion from courtroom-based litigation. With funding from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Hamilton County General Sessions Court, the City of Chattanooga, and Hamilton County government 

partnered to launch a pilot housing diversion program. One of the key gaps identified by this initiative’s team was the lack of coordinated mediation options in Chattanooga and Hamilton County that serve low-income litigants in diverse civil matters. 

               This gap, when met with the changing market conditions in the county, elevated the beneficial role that mediation could play in lessening the costly impact of litigation on civil justice involved persons. The EDI program moved forward with piloting mediation at the eviction docket and in a 5-month period in 2024, the EDI Facilitator had mediated improved outcomes in 28 housing cases. Additionally, Hamilton County’s Clerk and Master has been working voluntarily over the past ten years to fill this gap and has undertaken over 400 mediations for low-income litigants in civil matters including from juvenile, sessions, chancery, and circuit courts. There is a need for accessible mediation options for residents and low-income litigants in Hamilton County and the Chattanooga Bar Foundation began the efforts to expand current efforts already underway through a dedicated staff and program.

Services Provided by the CBA Courthouse Indigent Mediation Program

            The CBA Courthouse Mediation Coordinator that will focus on the following services:

• Survey and research the needs of all local stakeholders, including judges, attorneys, and litigants in civil matters.
• Develop sustainable volunteer coordination plan that builds on Chattanooga Bar Association (CBA) membership contributions and community leadership efforts.
• Finalize and implement program policies and procedures within a non-profit agency that allow for fundraising and long-term action planning.
• Build on historical data collection and analysis efforts to centralize and define outcome-based programming across diverse civil issues.
• Coordinate services for served families with a focus on connecting participant litigants and low-income households with wrap around services.
• Provide education and trainings to area landlords and tenants on the services available through civil mediation.

The CBA Courthouse Indigent Mediation Program highlights the importance that the Chattanooga Bar Association and its leadership places on a coordinated indigent mediation program that encourages pro bono involvement by attorneys. Currently, the EDI pilot initiative and the efforts in building this sustainable program through IOLTA funds are overseen by the CBA Executive Director and the CBA program committee. Attorney leaders in the CBA have supported the development of this mediation program and donated hours to on-site support to housing mediation efforts. These attorneys include: EDI Coordinator and attorney Preet Grewal, as well as our eviction mediators: Judge Jeff Hollingsworth, Robin Miller, Rachel Kapperman, Marc Harwell, Jim Exum, Mary Sullivan Moore, and Bo Hixson. I would also like to recognize and thank the County’s Economic and Community Development Director Alexa LeBeouf for all her time, effort and dedication is seeing this pilot project from beginning in 2020 to where we are now.The central capacity to the mediation program are attorneys and Rule 31 mediators willing to volunteer their time to support low-income litigants access to mediation services in civil proceedings.

We are also honored to announce that local Attorney and Judge Tracy Cox has joined as the CBA as our Mediation Coordinator for this project to support us as we build from an eviction mediation pilot program in General Sessions Court to a more a community based program that supports mediation in a variety of civil, domestic, juvenile, and criminal cases.