Assists people to avoid high legal costs and to solve problems in a quick and cost effective way. Provides support for mediation, pre-trial settlements, legal options, parenting plans, and landlord/tenant conflicts.

Mediation Services offered at Fulcrum Institute Dispute Resolution Clinic

Assists people to avoid high legal costs and to solve problems in a quick and cost effective way. Provides support in mediation for pre-trial settlements and legal options including; parenting plans, family issues, divorce, elder services and more.

Programs that help tenants and landlords resolve disputes regarding security and other rental deposits, unsanitary conditions, failure to make repairs, privacy, notice requirements, excessive rent increases, nonpayment of rent, neglect or damage to property, overcrowding or other grievances.

Landlord/Tenant Dispute Resolution

Programs that provide an impartial third person who is selected by the parties to a dispute or appointed by an outside body, who presides over a hearing at which both parties have an opportunity to be heard, and who issues an award that both parties have agreed in advance to accept as final. Included are compulsory arbitration in which the consent of one of the parties is enforced by statutory provisions, voluntary arbitration which involves mutual and free consent by both parties, interest arbitration in which the terms of a contract are settled, and grievance arbitration which concerns the violation or interpretation of an existing contract.

Arbitration

Programs that provide a neutral third person who is acceptable to all parties to a dispute who facilitates discussion between the parties and aids them in making their own settlement decisions.

Mediation

Programs that help families resolve conflicts and reach consensus about care options for older family members. The mediator meets with family members (generally adult children) and their parents to sort out contentious or unresolved issues relating to the care plans for their parents. Other relatives and close friends may also be involved in the process. The mediator's objective is to defuse the situation and keep the group focused on finding the best possible outcome for the parent. Topics may include money issues, health care and end-of-life choices, possessions, independence, living arrangements, safety, caregiving responsibilities, economic and geographic disparities among siblings, differing expectations, complicated role reversals, ingrained ways of behaving, old "baggage" and personal commitments.  The service is generally provided by a trained, neutral conflict-resolution professional who may be an attorney or therapist with support, when helpful, from an elder law attorney, financial planner, caregiver or geriatric care manager.

Elder Mediation

Programs approved by the court that provide classes which utilize a specialized curriculum that assists families with family preservation and unification. The programs target families in which children are deemed at risk for abuse and neglect and enable parents to fulfill the requirements of court-ordered family preservation contracts.