Dispute Resolution Services

The City of Long Beach provides office space for the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Services, Inc. to provide free and low-cost mediation services to the Long Beach community.


MEDIATION is a highly successful process in which neutral trained mediators provide people locked into a dispute with a way to communicate and hear one anothers’ concerns.

MEDIATION IS: 

  • Confidential
  • Quick
  • Effective
  • Convenient
  • Empowering

Community Services:

DRS Community Services offers a quick and free or low-cost way for citizens to resolve disputes through mediation.

Typical Community Services Disputes can include:

  • Landlord/Tenant 
  • Neighborhood 
  • Consumer/Merchant 
  • Employer/Employee 
  • Small Claims 
  • Family Law 
  • Business
  • Domestic
  • Condominium

DRS will accept self-referrals and referrals from the following collaborative agencies and all City departments:

  • City of Long Beach Animal Care Services
  • Anaheim Community Police Center
  • Willmore Community Police Center
  • Wrigley Information and Police Center
  • Business Development Center
  • Housing Authority
  • Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership
  • and all other City Departments

ORIGIN OF COMMUNITY SERVICES:

Originally known as the Neighborhood Justice Center, Community Services opened its doors in 1978. Now a part of Dispute Resolution Services, this program continues to serve the public by helping people work out their differences. Through mediation, Community Services has helped over 45,000 people resolve their disputes.


LAW ENFORCEMENT:

"Mediation is a cost-effective tool for resolving many interpersonal conflicts. When parties get involved in the mediation process, they develop a stake in seeing the problem solved. We view the community mediation program of DRS as an important public service." - Robert M. Myers, former Santa Monica City Attorney.


COMMUNITY LEADERS:

"Effective communication solves more problems than rules and regulations. By fostering communication, DRS achieves what rules can only suggest." - Helen Albert, former Mayor, City of West Hollywood.

For more information please contact: Debora Thomas-Beasley Long Beach Program Coordinator, located inside the Neighborhood Resource Center (NRC), 425 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802 (562) 570-1019 or (626) 623-8206 or via e-mail to dthomas@lacba.org


OTHER LOCATIONS:

PASADENA:

Western Justice Center

65 S. Grand Ave., Ste. 204 Pasadena, CA 91105

Telephone: 626) 449-3879

FAX: (626) 449-4270.


WEST HOLLYWOOD:

8240 Santa Monica Boulevard

West Hollywood, CA 90046
Telephone: (323) 876-2747


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