The co-op and condominium committee of the New York Bar Association will soon recommend that co-op and condos require feuding neighbors to have their disputes mediated before filing lawsuits, according to an article in Tuesday's edition of brickunderground.com.

The article said that Eva Talel, the chair of the committee, said it has "developed a model provision requiring shareholders to mediate quality of life issues like noise." She said the provision will become available on the association's website this month and would be incorporated into a building's house rules.

Involved parties must sign an agreement to mediate and pay $100 each as an administration fee to the Bar Association, which will then provide the names of five qualified mediators. The mediator then will fix the date, time and place of the initial mediation session and the parties can submit summaries, up to 10 pages in length, of what they consider to be pertinent to the issue.

The mediator may suggest resolutions but has no authority to decide any issue and is acting solely as "an independent, neutral facilitator." All information presented to the mediator is deemed confidential and no stenographic, tape or video recording of the mediation can be made although the mediator and parties can take notes.

Mediation is non-binding, meaning neighbors can still sue each other if the mediation is not successful.

The article said that Ms. Tafel "feels confident that many boards will adopt the mediation-first approach, starting with a broad swath of her committee members' own clients," adding that "Those of us on the committee represent a fair number of buildings and managing agents, and we would recommend it to our boards."