Unusual Uses of ADR

From the pages of the Henning Herald, September edition:

More than Just Personal Injury and ContractsTypically mediation and arbitration are viewed as methods to address situations that would lead to civil litigation. However, trained mediators, including Henning neutrals are increasingly involved in situations that go beyond the standard cases a mediator might see.
Henning neutral Terrence Lee Croft recently received an urgent call after midnight from the Alpharetta police department requesting his help in attempting to negotiate the surrender of a homeowner to a police swat team that had surrounded his home. The homeowner's wife, who was not in the home, had told officers that Croft was the only person her husband would trust in this serious and potentially life-threatening situation. Croft spent the rest of the night and early morning hours assisting the authorities. Finally, after daybreak, the homeowner asked for Croft. Croft called the homeowner on his cell phone, while simultaneously talking on another phone with the captain of the assault team. Croft persuaded the homeowner to surrender to the authorities just before they executed an armed invasion of the home. As a result, the homeowner's life was spared. He is now in jail, awaiting disposition of the charges against him, which arose from an argument with a neighbor rummaging through the homeowner's trash.

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Terrence Lee Croft will speak at the ADR Annual Institute held at the Georgia State Bar Headquarters October 19. He will also address a meeting of lawyers and claims representatives of the Cincinnati Insurance Company November 1.

(P.S. With TLC's help (testifying in a pretrial hearing), the guy is out of jail now awaiting his day in court.)