Description:“The highly trained and experienced staff and volunteers at Empowered Pathways offer a variety of dispute resolution services.
Mediation allows people an opportunity to speak and be heard, while a neutral manages the conversation. It helps improve communication, improve relationships, and solve problems. Our professional mediators are trained and certified in accordance with standards set by the New York State Unified Court System, and their services offer real and lasting solutions. These services are free or low-cost.
SMALL CLAIMS
Intended to allow parties involved in Small Claims proceedings to settle more quickly and with greater say in the process. Mediation can help find a resolution that the parties themselves choose.
These agreements are enforceable by the referring court, happen quickly, and offer a flexibility and satisfaction unique to the mediation process. The process is strictly voluntary, and it offers both claimants and respondents an option they might not previously have been aware of.
RESTITUTION
Focused on allowing parties (individuals, groups or communities) to verbalize the harm done to them and their need for it to be acknowledged by the perpetrator(s) of the harm.
This mediation focuses on active involvement by the victim and the offender, giving them the opportunity to mutually rectify the harm done to the victim in a process that promotes dialogue between them. Traditional justice systems focus on punishment. Restitution changes that emphasis, working to not only make victims whole again, but to highlight accountability for offenders.
ARBITRATION
Intended to allow parties a quicker, legally binding solution to the court process. Like a hearing held in the courts, during an arbitration, standards of evidence are applied to all evidence submitted to the parties.
All testimony is given under oath, and the Arbitrator has the power to subpoena witnesses when needed. The Arbitrator will weigh the evidence and testimony submitted and issue a decision within 30 days of the hearing. The decision is binding for cases referred from the local courts under Article 75 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules.”