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However, county judges decide to do away with arbitration step of challenges.
Luzerne County judges will continue to use mediation for property assessment court challenges, and they’ve assigned an additional manager to speed up processing of the remaining 1,800 challenges.
A second step added to assessment court challenges – arbitration before a three-lawyer panel – will be eliminated, the judges have decided.
The third step – appearance before a special master – also will be cancelled for residential property owners. Instead, residential property owners who are dissatisfied with mediation may argue their cases before a county judge. The judges will hear these cases on an expedited schedule.
The special master option will still be used at the discretion of judges on a case-by-case basis for commercial and industrial property challenges and “complex protracted litigation,” according to a media release from President Judge Chester Muroski.
Jury Board Supervisor Donald Tedesco was assigned to process mediation challenges in addition to Deputy Court Administrator Peter J. Adonizio. Adonizio recently assumed the duty when specialty courts director Sam Guesto was furloughed.
Tedesco, the brother-in-law of decertified senior judge Michael Conahan, was chosen for the task because he has experience in real estate matters, the release said.
The release said the three steps had been adopted by the court in June 2008 because 8,000 to 15,000 court challenges were expected.
“Since the high volume of anticipated appeals never materialized, compulsory arbitration has been rendered unnecessary,” the release said.
Property owners have been pushing for faster processing of mediation because they must pay their taxes based on the contested values until they receive mediation settlements. Overpayments would then be reimbursed.
The court had been processing about 20 cases per week – a pace that meant mediation wouldn’t wrap up until late summer or fall 2010.
About 2,000 property owners have challenged their assessed values to court, and at least 171 have reached mediation settlements with county assessment appeals board solicitor David Schwager to date. No non-settlements have been filed.
The first 86 settlements resulted in $3.9 million in assessment reductions.
Many cases have reached settlement without requiring a conference. Schwager urged property owners to be cooperative when he requests copies of appraisals and other documentation, saying he needs the information to determine if assessment reductions are warranted. Schwager said a few property owners were upset because they had already supplied the information to the reassessment company and/or appeals boards, but he does not have access to that data.
Judges looked at the three challenge steps, in part, because roughly 240 Harveys Lake property owners recently presented a petition urging the court to do away with the mediation and arbitration stages and allow property owners to go straight to a special master.
Reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals has also backed that proposal.
However, Schwager said mediation can’t be stopped midstream because all property owners must have the same access to court-challenge procedures.
21st Century’s contract says the company shall be paid $400 an hour to defend assessed values before the Court of Common Pleas — $150 for a certified appraiser and $250 for legal counsel. County officials decided that contract clause didn’t apply to mediation.