Harvard Law School’s Harvard Mediation Program (HMP) has received much praise for its efforts, particularly relating to Harassment Prevention Order (HPO) cases.  The Quincy District Court in Massachusetts has initiated the Harassment Prevention Order program to deal with cases involving emotional upheaval and animosity stemming from harassment accusations between neighbors, co-workers, former lovers and families.  Such harassment tends to happen over social networks like Facebook or at people’s places of employment, making it necessary to swiftly deal with the situation through successful alternative dispute resolution methods like mediation. 

The HPO mediation pilot program allows student mediators from the Harvard Mediation Program to receive cases directly from a judge as he or she goes down the daily docket.  The judge determines which cases would be better resolved through mediation and sends the parties to a private conference room near the courtroom to conduct the mediation hearing.  Trained student mediators then facilitate communication between the opposing parties in an attempt to resolve the dispute. 

Student mediator, Aseem Padukone ’14, stated, “Keeping the emotions in the room in check is probably the biggest challenge. HPO cases are almost exclusively centered around frayed relationships between the parties. It is important to help the parties sift through their emotions and to see if they can reach an agreement that is amenable to both of them.”