How To Ask For Financial Aid

Fill out the ADR Financial Aid Application. Court ADR staff will not share your information with the other parties.

If the judge already ordered a fee waiver for you in your case, you only need to complete part of the application. Turn in the application with your fee waiver order attached, instead of completing the financial information on the application.

The ADR staff uses federal poverty guidelines to decide if you qualify for financial aid. ADR staff will look at the special circumstances of each case. If your income is more than the federal poverty guidelines, the ADR Office may ask you to pay part of the usual ADR fees.

No. The other parties never have to pay more than their share of the ADR fees unless they choose to do so.

Yes. If you qualify, you can get up to 6 hours of ADR services at a lower cost.

Yes. It is a two-step process. First, you must apply and then we will let you know if you qualify. After that, you may select an ADR provider.

You and the other parties select four names from a special panelist list. This list has ADR providers who are available for limited-fee cases. After selecting four possible ADR providers, give these names to the ADR Program. The ADR Program will assign one of these panelists to be the ADR provider for your case and will let you know who it is.

Yes. If you qualify for financial aid, the ADR Program will choose one of the four names you choose from the list. Do not contact the ADR provider until the ADR office lets you know who it has assigned to your case.

Yes. All our panelists are willing to accept these cases because they believe that everyone should have the right to use ADR. The ADR staff tries to distribute these cases fairly amongst the panelists.

Within 14 days after the ADR Program tells you who it assigned to your case, you and the other parties must file a Stipulation and Order to ADR with the court. Use the correct form for your case type:

For civil cases: Stipulation and Order To ADR

For probate cases: Probate Stipulation & Order to ADR

This form tells the court the name of your ADR provider and the date of the scheduled ADR session.

After the ADR office tells you who your ADR provider will be, you and the other parties must:

contact the ADR provider directly, and set up a time for your ADR session.

Tell the ADR provider that the San Mateo Superior Court's Multi-Option ADR Project "MAP" referred you.

Please contact staff at (650) 261-5075 or (650) 261-5076.