§ 25-2913.Mediators and restorative justice facilitators; qualifications; compensation; powers and duties.

Section 25-2913 sets the floor for who can mediate or facilitate at an approved center. Everyone needs at least thirty hours of basic training covering conflict resolution techniques, neutrality, agreement writing, and ethics, and anyone without prior mediation experience must additionally serve an apprenticeship of at least three sessions alongside an experienced mediator before working alone.

Two specialties call for more. Mediators handling marital dissolution, parenting, or child custody disputes need added training in family mediation. Restorative justice facilitators handling harm done to others or the community need office-approved training covering restorative justice basics, trauma-informed practices, the developmental characteristics of juveniles, and crime victimization. Centers can pay their mediators and facilitators, rely on volunteers, or mix both.

The role itself stays deliberately limited. A mediator or facilitator gives parties the chance to work out their own resolution — in joint or separate sessions, including a reparation plan agreement where restorative justice is involved — but stays impartial, neutral, and unbiased, and makes no decisions for the parties. If the parties cannot agree, or if the mediator believes an agreement on the table would be unconscionable, the mediator ends the process without prejudice to either side in any other proceeding. Neither a mediator nor a facilitator can impose any adjudicatory sanction, and both are expected to point participants toward outside resources and recommend legal review of any agreement when warranted.