Making a referral to a Dispute Resolution Centre

You can make a referral to a dispute resolution centre if you work in a position where members of the public may ask you for help with a dispute. These positions include:

• police
• local government officers
• personal or relationship counsellors
• welfare or social workers
• workplace managers
• legal advisers
• court staff
• Department of Housing and community housing workers.

When making a referral to the dispute resolution centre you may either:

• give our brochures to the person who is seeking assistance, explain a little about our service and ask them to telephone us if they wish to inquire further about the service.
• ask the person for their permission for you to pass their name and contact details on to us so we can contact them personally.

After you make a referral

An intake officer will contact and interview the parties and decide whether or not mediation is suitable for their situation.

If the matter is suitable for mediation, we will set up the mediation at a time, date and place that is convenient to all parties. Usually we use two mediators.

The law prevents us from providing referrers with any information about a file. We can only disclose information about mediation sessions to referrers if all parties attending the mediation sign a Consent to disclose form.

For more information contact a dispute resolution centre near you.