Court-Connected Dispute Resolution

Court-Connected Services

Cape Mediation offers no-fee Court-Connected Mediation and Court-Connected Conciliation services to parties involved in litigation in Small Claims, Summary Process (evictions), and on the Civil Docket in the Barnstable District Courts.

Click here to request mediation/conciliation services.

Court-Connected Mediation

Cape Mediation is a Supreme Judicial Court-approved program sanctioned by the Massachusetts District Courts. Since 1989, we have provided quality court-based mediation to the communities of Barnstable and Nantucket Counties and supported our courts in their work to solve challenging conflicts and resolve disputes. We generally service 750 cases a year, with an overall agreement rate of 80%.

Cape Mediation provides no-fee services in our Summary Process Mediation Program (landlord-tenant matters) and in our Small Claims Mediation Program in the district courts of Barnstable, Falmouth, and Orleans.

Cape Mediation offers the parties the opportunity to discuss their cases in a safe, neutral, and structured way.

“Cape Mediation has been providing mediation services for this court in the fields of summary process and small claims for over a decade. These services are of extraordinary value to both the court and the parties.”  (Robert A. Welsh II, First Justice of the Orleans District Court)

Click here to request mediation/conciliation services.

Court-Connected Conciliation

We offer Conciliation Services for civil matters in the District Courts in Falmouth, Barnstable and Orleans.  Conciliation is a voluntary, confidential and informal dispute resolution process in which we help people to settle their disputes, and is similar to our Mediation process.  All of our conciliators are volunteer attorneys licensed to practice in Massachusetts.  The program offers an opportunity to resolve your dispute without the necessity of trial.  Our court-connected conciliations that are referred to us by the courts are provided at no charge to the parties.

“Many of our litigants are either self­ represented or are represented on a limited assistance basis. For many litigants, time in court is time out of work or school, and translates to increased costs for transportation and child care, as well as increased legal costs. A case that is resolved fairly with the parties’ agreement, at a pretrial stage, represents a success for both the court and the litigants. Conciliation will almost certainly facilitate these kinds of successes.”  (Judge Kathryn Hand, First Justice of the Barnstable District Court)

Click here to request mediation/conciliation services.