NEW RULE 31 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

“HOW TO IN A NUTSHELL”

Supreme Court Rule 31 requires the Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission to “evaluate the success of Rule 31 ADR Proceedings based on participant satisfaction, quality of results, and effect on case management.”  In an effort to comply with this duty, the Commission has created and approved statistical reporting forms for Rule 31 listed mediators.  At it’s October 30, 2007 meeting, the ADR Commission adopted the following policy:

“Effective January 1, 2008, all mediators listed pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 31 will be required to submit reports as prescribed by the Commission, regarding any mediation beginning on or after January 1, 2008, except as to matters pending in state courts outside of Tennessee and the Federal Court System.  Mediators will have 15 calendar days form the date of the last mediation session to submit the report to the AOC.  This policy does not affect any other reporting obligation required of a Rule 31 listed mediator.” 

The website you will need to go to when submitting reports is www.tncourts.gov/Rule31Report.htm. 

On November 28, 2007, Andrea Ayers, Programs Manager with the Tennessee Supreme Court Administrative Office of the Court, mailed to all Rule 31 listed mediators your USER ID and PASSWORD.   If you did not receive your USER ID and PASSWORD, please call her at 615-741-2687 or email andrea.ayers@tncourts.gov for further instructions.

Although this process seems clear cut on the front end, there is one step that needs to be done before you can successfully make a report to the ADR Commission.  You must first install an “SSL CERTIFICATE” which is the AOC Web Server Security Certificate – this provides a secure data environment which is very important!   Your computer mostly likely does not have this installed and if you try to access the AOC Reporting website, you will get an error message:  “THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THIS WEBSITE’S SECURITY CERTIFICATE”

So, the first thing you need to do is:

Install the AOC Web Server Security Certificate on your computer.

1.  Enter the following address www.tncourtsw.gov/CertSrv

            The next screen will be a “WELCOME” screen.

            “Select a Task” will be at the bottom of the screen.

2.   Click “Download a CA Certificate, certificate chain or CRL”

Now you will see a “Dialog” box that asks you if you noticed an Information Bar?  (An information bar is a narrow yellow bar at the top of your browser that is hard to recognize, but it asks you a very important question… “          The website wants to run the following add-on:  “Microsoft Certificate Enrollment from ‘Microsft Corporation’ ‘’

3.         Click on the YELLOW BAR just described.

4.         Click on “Run Active X Control” from the drop drown menu.

Once the ACTIVE X CONTROL is installed, a dialog box will appear which warns you that you are installing a certificate and wants confirmation that it is okay. 

5.         CLICK “YES”

Yet another WARNING box appears.  This warning is regarding the source of the certificate, which in this case is the “TSC AOC”

6.         CLICK “YES”

Finally a screen appears, to indicate that the certificate is installed!

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY TIME YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THESE STEPS A-1 THROUGH A-6!  

Now you are free to report your many mediations to the ADR Commission by visiting the web site:   www.tncourts.gov/Rule31Report.htm 

The form itself is self-explanatory and tells you when you have made a mistake, so once it is installed, the requirement is fairly simple. 

1.         Enter your User ID and Password

2.         Follow the online instructions in the Report.