§ 25-2943.Referral of civil cases to mediation or alternative dispute resolution; rules of practice.

Section 25-2943 gives courts, not just the parties, the power to start a case down the mediation path. A court may refer a civil case, including a contested guardianship or conservatorship proceeding, to mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution. Unless the court orders otherwise after a hearing on a motion objecting to the referral, it may set a date for the case to come back to court.

That return date is not open-ended. It cannot run more than ninety days past the date of the referral order, unless the court grants an extension at the parties’ request. The ninety-day outer limit keeps a court-ordered referral from stalling a case indefinitely while the parties work through mediation or another ADR process.

Whatever comes out of that process still has to be the parties’ own choice. Any agreement or resolution reached in mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution under this section must be voluntarily entered into by the parties; a court-ordered referral compels the parties to sit down together, not to settle. Trial courts, appellate courts, and the Nebraska Supreme Court may each adopt their own rules of practice governing how referrals under this section work, and approved centers may provide the mediation or ADR services on a sliding scale of fees under the Dispute Resolution Act.