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manousso_new_logo7 Become a Professional Mediator – Headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA, since 1993

@Do you have questions?
There are many answers below with training dates and fees.  Or call!

Click here for tuition and special discounts, like our early bird and active college student. Or call, Dr. Barbara Manousso at 713/557-1010.

ZOOM live: we are doing business, family, and divorce mediations with interactive/real time course training  online.  Call us at (713)557-1010 text/talk!

For the best in mediation training, select a mediation training program with proven leadership and lecturers who identify themselves with academic credentials and professional standing, like the staff of Manousso Mediation and Arbitration, LLC: Solution2Conflict, who are actively engaged as practitioners and leaders in the mediation and ADR field.

Have you listened to Manousso Musing on PodCasts or YouTube?

Make sure that your trainers meet the qualifications for and are members of professional mediation organizations, such as Texas Mediators Trainers Round Table (TMTR) and Texas Credentialing Association, or you won’t be getting a quality training.

Manousso Mediation and Arbitration, LLC. is an accredited sponsor of continuing education credits (CEU), approved by the State Bar of Texas, Committee on MCLE, as well as other professional organizations, such as CEU for CPA, LPC, and HR.


Arbitration Training ONLINE with ZOOM: live and interactive.

($550.00) Ask about special discounts.

Earn MCLE/CEU 10 and 4 in ethics for JD, CPA, LPC, SW, HR on Friday, 12 April 2024, from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM, plus writing a brief opinion that will be explained in class.


Basic Mediation Training ZOOM LIVE and INTERACTIVE. 40 hours.

($975) Ask about special discounts.

Earn MCLE/CEU 40 and 4 in ethics for JD, CPA, LPC, SW, HR, includes Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR training), handouts, and notebooks:

Our next class will start be from Wednesday to Friday, April 17, 18, 19, 2024, and then the next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23rd and 24th, 2024, from 10 AM to 6:30 PM daily.

All classes will be ZOOM live and interactive. Students must be ON CAMERA and attentive for the whole program for certificate and MCLE/CEU affirmative.


Advanced Mediation: Family-Divorce-Child Custody training live, interactive, on ZOOM. 30 hours.

($895) Ask about special discounts.

Earn MCLE/CEU 30 and 4 in ethics for JD, CPA, LPC, SW, HR.

Class will be held from <Tuesday to Friday – on March 19, 20, 21, 22, 2024, from 10 AM to 6:00 PM.  Join the eleven lecturers and interactive class on ZOOM!
New: Domestic Violence for Advance Family Training required by TX legislation
the four (4) hours required by Texas statute is yours for $150. (This Domestic Violence training is INCLUDED in our Advance Family 30 hours of training above.)

If you have taken the 30 hours of Advance Family training, but only need this DV-4 hours, then register under Advance Training drop-down ^ button.

If you are already an attorney or mediator who does not have the Texas Statute Required domestic violence (DV) training, you can take the DV only  class that will be held on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, from 1 PM until 5:00 PM. Please send an email note with your name to mediation@manousso.us with
Subject: Domestic Violence Certificate


Parenting Coordination and Facilitation Training

($525) Ask about special discounts.

ZOOM live and interactive: Sign up for this and Advance Family at the same time and use the early bird discount (SAVE $$$) for both classes

16 hours-MCLE/CEU 16 and 4 in ethics for JD, CPA, LPC, SW, HR

In 2024, Friday and Saturday, September 20th and 21st, 2024, from 9:00AM until 5:30PM, daily.  >> AMICUS training: The PCF skills are excellent for Amicus attorneys in communicating with high conflict clients.


Elder and Adult Family Mediation Training

($600), specially discounted for family mediators.

If you have questions, call (713)557-1010. Classes are held ZOOM live and interactive.

20 hours-MCLE/CEU 20 and 3 in ethics for JD, CPA, LPC, SW, HR on Tuesday, May 7th, 1 PM to 5 PM, Wednesday, May 8th, from 10 am until 6:30 PM, Thursday, May 9th, 2024, from 10 AM until 6:30 PM

Note our NO refund policy, once you have paid for a training, but you can always reschedule online classes with a rescheduling fee of $150, if you cancel within 72 hours.

Our classes can be taken in any order, although you can’t mediate until you meet all the requirements of Texas statutes.

Classes will be held on ZOOM, so it is required for certificate attendance that students use a computer and remain on camera, ATTENTIVELY, for the duration of the training.  

Handicap accessible training venue: ZOOM live!

Texas Justice Center for Mediation and Arbitration in Bellaire off I-610 West Loop.

Ranch Office Conference Room and Virtual Office

Ranch Office Conference Room and Virtual Office

Heights Mediation Center

Brochure

The Texas Mediation Center in Bellaire and Heights Mediation Center are modern, well located, facilities dedicated to ADR meetings, where you can proudly invite your mediation and arbitration clients.

See brochure.

Arbitration Training

This course is complemented by lecturers from Manousso Mediation and the Houston Better Business Bureau, internationally through ZOOM!   

This arbitration training covers communication practices during hearings and meetings and in writing arbitration awards.  You will learn the format and process of opinion writing, as well as theory:

  • Arbitration agreements, recognition and enforcement of the agreement
  • Preliminary meetings, meeting procedures and arbitrator powers
  • Hearings
  • Court involvement in arbitration
  • Remedies
  • Assessment of evidence
  • Decision making
  • Awards – form writing
  • Post award
  • Ethics for arbitrators

This ten hours training will be held from 9:00 AM until 6:30 PM on ZOOM with an assignment.  Included in tuition is your certificate and notebook,   

This course does not meet the requirements for Texas Tax Code Sect. 41A.06 through the Texas Comptroller’s real estate tax program, but it meets and exceeds all other requirements for arbitration programs, especially the Better Business Bureau’s consumer and the AutoLine programs, as well as FINRA, Texas Department of Insurance, Federal Surprise Billing, Texas Education Agency, Family-Divorce cases, Federal, City, County, and all other national and international arbitration panels and opportunities.

Expand your ADR horizons!   Most arbitration panels prefer that the arbitrator also has 40 hours of basic mediation training.

Click here to register for the Arbitration course

Arbitration
 

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, wherein the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the “arbitrators”, “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal“), by whose decision (the “award“) they agree to be bound. It is a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides.[1] Other forms of ADR include mediation[2] (a form of settlement negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party) and non-binding resolution by experts. Arbitration is often used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions. The use of arbitration is also frequently employed in consumer and employment matters, but there arbitration is not voluntary but is instead imposed on consumers or employees through legislation or adhesion contracts, denying individuals their right to access the courts.

Arbitration can be either voluntary or mandatory (although mandatory arbitration can only come from a statute or from a contract that is voluntarily entered into, where the parties agree to hold all disputes to arbitration, without knowing, specifically, what disputes will ever occur) and can be either binding or non-binding. Non-binding arbitration is, on the surface, similar to mediation. However, the principal distinction is that whereas a mediator will try to help the parties find a middle ground on which to compromise, the (non-binding) arbitrator remains totally removed from the settlement process and will only give a determination of liability and, if appropriate, an indication of the quantum of damages payable.  For more information, click here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration

Syllabus

2020 Arbitration Certificate Skills: – 9 hours  (9 MCLE/CEU, 4 MCLE in ethics)


Overview of Arbitration Process

8:30 AM until 9:00 AM
Judge Josefina Rendon
Arbitrator-Mediator

Ethics in Arbitration
9:00 AM until 9:45 AM
Melissa Back, JD, Arbitrator-Mediator

Break
9:45 AM until 10:00 AM
15 minutes
Basic Arbitration Skills: Overview and The Role of the Arbitrator
10:00 AM until noon
Lori LaConta, JD., MBA
Mediator-Arbitrator President of LERA Labor Employment Relations Association, and
AAA panelist

Lunch
(12:00 PM until 1:00 PM)
Exercises
60 minutes

BBB Arbitrations and BBB Opinions
1 PM until 2:00 PM
ADR Coordinator for the
Better Business Bureau

Ethics and Statutory Requirements continued
2:00 PM until 3:00 PM
Melissa Back, JD, Arbitrator
Break
3:00 PM until 3:15 PM

15 minutes

Writing an Opinion:  Indentify the Issues
3:15 PM until 4:00 PM
Judge Alvin Zimmerman
Mediator-Arbitrator

Exercises and Role Plays
4:00 PM until 4:45 PM
Dr. Manousso
Mediator-Arbitrator

Writing an Opinion Exercise
4:45 PM until 6:00 PM
Melissa Back, JD,Mediator-Arbitrator

Course overview addresses this curriculum:

  • Communication practices during hearings and meetings
  • Writing arbitration awards
  • Arbitration agreements, recognition and enforcement of the agreement
  • Preliminary meetings, meeting procedures and arbitrator powers
  • Hearings
  • Court involvement in arbitration
  • Remedies
  • Assessment of evidence
  • Decision making
  • Awards – form writing
  • Post award
  • Ethics for arbitrators in

 

Lecturers

Barbara Sunderland Manousso, Ph.D., MPH, a Texas Distinguished Credentialed Mediator, has been arbitrating since 1993.  She has served on a variety of arbitration panels as a solo arbitrator or member of a panel for city, state, and federal contracts.  She also arbitrates as a consumer arbitrator and specializes in medical cases.

 

 


Judge Alvin Zimmerman, J.D. having served as Judge of two different district  courts in Harris County (the 309th Family and 269th Civil District Court) has been involved in over 500 arbitrations in which he has been a solo arbitrator, a member of a panel and chair of the panel. These cases range from pro bono small fender bender, to complex cases involving multi-million dollars in damages.
The subject matter has included health law, contracts, employment, family law, securities, insurance, personal injury etc.  He is a Fellow in the CIarb, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (and passed his written exam for arbitration in both organizations), and a panelist on complex matters for the American Arbitration Association, and he also serves with CPR.

  


Lori LaConta, JD, MBA, a Texas Distinguished Credentialed Mediator, has been an arbitrator for many years with focus on employment and labor arbitration.  She served as the president of the Houston area Labor Employment Relations Association (LERA), is the former president of the Association on Conflict Resolution (ACR) Houston Chapter. and is past-president of the Texas Association of Mediators.  She for many years has served as an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, D.C. and is a professor in business management at the University of Houston ClearLake.

 


Judge Josefina Muñiz Rendón, JD  is a 1976 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center and has been a third party neutral for over 30 years as judge, arbitrator. or mediator. In 2008, she was elected Judge of the 165th Civil District Court in Harris County, Texas. Prior to that she had been a Judge for the City of Houston Municipal Courts (1983-2008) and Vice-chair of the city’s Civil Service Commission (1980-1983).  Rendon is past president of the Texas Association of Mediators.  She mediated and/or taught negotiation for the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy as well as for several federal agencies until shortly before she became the Judge of the 165th. Between 1993 and 2008, Judge Rendon mediated well over 1,200 disputes predominantly in the areas of employment, family, and personal injury law. Rendon is a published author of over 100 articles and book reviews as well as a frequent speaker in the areas of conflict resolution, diversity, and law.  She was editor of The Texas Mediator, a legal columnist for La Voz de Houston and an editorial board member of both the Texas Bar Journal and The Houston Lawyer. Born an American citizen in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Josefina has lived in Houston, Texas for over 40 years.

 

Constance K. Acosta, J.D.   Connie’s practice area covers a wide range of disciplines, including 16 years experience commercial litigation and 18 years of experience in employment litigation, arbitration, grievances, and municipal law. Connie has 7 years experience in administration, management and social welfare. Connie has experience as a negotiator with municipalities, police departments, fire departments and emergency medical services. Connie obtained certifications in Mediation: Basic, Advanced Family Law and Advanced Elder Care, Arbitration – Hearing Examiner, Collaborative Law Attorney, and Guardian Ad Litem. Connie is a Member of the Governmental Section of the Firm, which acts as City Attorney and outside litigation counsel for various municipalities. Connie is also a Facilitator in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Conflict Resolution, and Trainer in all aspect of employment law.