Passaic Vicinage Seeking Municipal Court Mediation Volunteers

The Passaic Vicinage is seeking volunteers for its municipal court mediation program, which allows minor disputes to be handled through the mediation process.

The program provides court users in nearly all municipalities with an alternative to having certain cases heard and decided by a judge.

Mediation is a structured, non-adversarial process that allows a neutral third party to assist disputing parties in reaching a mutually acceptable solution. The mediation process can be a less expensive, informal, and a more meaningful alternative to the traditional trial process, largely because of the efforts of trained volunteers and the resolution being reached by the participants.

Community members are recruited, carefully screened, trained, and appointed as court volunteers to mediate minor cases. Basic mediation and conciliation training (an 18-hour course) is required of all volunteers prior to appointment. As a neutral party, a mediator helps court users discuss the issues of their case and explore options to resolve the dispute themselves.

The typical types of cases handled through the intervention of a trained mediator include but are not limited to simple assaults that do not include personal injury, trespassing, harassment, creating a disturbance, animal or pet complaints, annoying phone calls, property disputes, non-payment of bills, bad checks, and criminal mischief. On average, volunteer mediators devote between two and six hours per month.

Selected candidates will be fingerprinted and must satisfactorily pass a criminal history background check.

Interested candidates can access the volunteer application at njcourts.gov. For more information about these programs and the application process, contact Volunteer Liaison Melissa Alves at Melissa.Alves@njcourts.gov or 973-653-2930, ext. 24063.