Hanan M. Isaacs Advises New York State Divorce Mediators on Uniform Mediation Act

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Katherine Kish (609) 799-8898

NEWS-For Immediate Release

Saratoga Springs, NY (May 2, 2005)  Hanan M. Isaacs, who recently chaired an important national seminar on the newly enacted New Jersey Uniform Mediation Act (UMA), has been invited to speak to members of the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation (NYSCDM) about the merits of passing the Uniform Mediation Act in New York State. Mr. Isaacs, a mediator, arbitrator, and trial lawyer with offices in Princeton, NJ, will speak at the NYSCDM's 22nd Annual Conference, held this year at the Gideon Putnam Resort and Spa in Saratoga Springs, New York, on May 5-7, 2005.

According to Mr. Isaacs, who is pleased to discuss the benefits of UMA, "The national template for the UMA took five years to write. In New Jersey, it took two more years to re-write the bill to conform to statewide mediation practice, and another year to pass the bill and get it signed into law. Right now, the UMA is an essential tool for mediators, lawyers, parties, and judges."

Isaacs went on to say, "The UMA was created to deal with the interplay between a facilitative process, in which interests are identified and balanced on the one hand, and an adjudicative process, in which rights are vindicated and wrongs punished or remediated on the other." He added, "Legal proceedings are much needed services in this day and age. However, when parties are able to define and shape their own destiny, voluntarily, in a self-determined way, with facilitated assistance, privately, and inexpensively, all available data nationwide tell us that those parties are more satisfied with their own resolutions than they are with judicially or arbitration imposed solutions, and, importantly, are more willing to obey outcomes that they themselves have constructed."

About Hanan M. Isaacs
Hanan M. Isaacs is a Past President of the NJ Association of Professional Mediators and Past Chairman of the Dispute Resolution Section of the NJ State Bar. He served on the New Jersey Supreme Court's Complementary Dispute Resolution Committee and is a Master of two Inns of Court: The Justice Marie L. Garibaldi American ADR Inn of Court and the Mercer County American Inn of Court. Recognized by the NJ State Bar Association as "ADR Practitioner of 1999-2000" and "General Practitioner of 1994", Mr. Isaacs is a frequent journal author, multi-media contributor, and public speaker. He is a former Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall Law School and Rider University.