The Real Estate Bar Association (REBA) and U.S. Bankruptcy Court judges will team up to provide foreclosure mediation between lenders and borrowers in Massachusetts – for free.

The Bankruptcy Court will train more than 100 lawyers, who will then offer their services pro bono in residential foreclosure cases referred to them by the court.

“In so many of these residential foreclosures cases, the parties have never had a face-to-face meeting,” REBA President Steve Edwards said. “These cases just cry out for mediation.”

Any mediation is consensual, so the court cannot force the two sides to negotiate. But with a trained professional acting on the court’s behest, possibly in the courthouse itself, REBA and the judges hope the program will have enough gravity to successfully resolve some of the more stubborn impasses.

“So many individual bankruptcy cases involve mortgage-related disputes that would be better addressed by mediation than litigation, and we are hopeful that this new program will more effectively resolve many of those disputes,” said Chief Judge Henry J. Boroff of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The program coincides with the U.S. Senate considering a bill that would allow so-called judicial mortgage “cramdowns.” If that bill is made law, the need for foreclosure mediation is likely to spike, as troubled borrowers are more likely to seek bankruptcy.

Judge Frank Bailey and Chief Judge Boroff will join Edwards to announce the new program at REBA’s Spring Conference May 4 at the DCU Center in Worcester.