Eric Max, Director
Eric R. Max serves as both the Director of the Division of Citizen Relations as well as the Director of the Office of Dispute Settlement (ODS) within Citizen Relations. ODS is one of the leading state mediation offices in the country, mediating over 100 cases each year for the state and federal courts in New Jersey. As Director of ODS, Mr. Max has personally served as a court-appointed mediator in over 500 cases involving a wide range of topics including: insurance coverage, environmental clean-up, employment, construction, personal injury, malpractice, partnership and contract.
Significant cases mediated by Mr. Max include: 1) $500 million environmental insurance coverage dispute between a fortune 500 company and 20 of its insurance carriers; 2) multi-jurisdictional litigation resulting from a major oil spill in the waters between New York and New Jersey; and 3) $100 million class action involving the proposed demolition of high-rise public housing in Newark, N.J.. Mr. Max received the CPR Legal Program’s National Award for “Outstanding Practical Achievement in Dispute Resolution” for his mediation of the Newark housing dispute.
In addition, Mr. Max has taught hundreds of judges, attorneys and senior state officials in negotiation, mediation and settlement techniques. Specific groups trained include: N.J. Superior Court Judges, N.J. Administrative Law Judges, N.J. Office of the Attorney General, N.J. State Police and attorneys serving on the N.J. State Court Mediation Roster. Mr. Max has also taught courses on mediation at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School as well as at Seton Hall and Rutgers law schools. His writings include: “Confidentiality in Environmental Mediation,” 2 N.Y.U. Envtl. L.J. 219 (1993) and “Bench Manual for the Appointment of a Mediator,” 136 F.R.D. 499 (1991). Mr. Max has been a member of three federal court mediation panels, the N.J. Supreme Court Committee on Complimentary Dispute Resolution and has spoken at both the Third Circuit Judicial Conference and the N.J. Judicial College.
Mr. Max received a Specialization in Dispute Resolution from the Harvard Program on Negotiation and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Caroline M. Petrilla, Senior Mediator
Caroline M. Petrilla is Assistant Director of the State Office of Dispute Settlement (ODS). ODS provides a full range of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services including serving as mediator for state and federal courts, providing training in ADR, and designing and administering ADR programs.
Ms. Petrilla has served as a mediator in hundreds of cases including over 400 court appointed cases. She has also provided pre-litigation mediation services for public sector disputants. She is one of the most experienced employment mediators in the state and currently oversees the office’s mediation of employment matters. Ms. Petrilla mediates a full range of complex civil cases involving subjects such as the environment, estates, partnerships, personal injury, contract, and construction. She has also served as court appointed mediator in several multi-party public policy cases involving intergovernmental infrastructure disputes.
Ms. Petrilla has provided ADR training to both the public and private sectors, including thousands of state employees and hundreds of roster mediators/lawyers. Ms. Petrilla assisted in developing and implementing the statewide mortgage foreclosure mediation program and is a leading mortgage foreclosure mediator. She has helped design dispute resolution programs for schools across the state, as well as, developed a nationally recognized mediation procedure for the siting of group homes. She was instrumental in developing the state’s agricultural mediation program for the USDA and has facilitated public policy debates involving such issues as wildlife management. She has trained Human Relations Committee members statewide to mediate bias-based community disputes.
Ms. Petrilla earned her M.A. degree in Administration from Rider College and J.D. degree from Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, where she serves as an adjunct professor teaching ADR courses. Ms. Petrilla is a member of the American Bar Association, New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators, N.J.State Bar Association and the NJSBA Committee on Dispute Resolution. She represents ODS on the New Jersey Supreme Court Rules Committee on Complementary Dispute Resolution and chairs its Subcommittee on Education; she also chairs the state’s Interagency ADR Working Group. She has received various commendations including the Union County Human Relations 2005 Special Recognition Award and Who’s Who Among Law Educators, 2005. She volunteers as a Big Sister in Ocean County and a municipal mediator in her hometown.
Office of Dispute Settlement Staff
| Winda Maldonado |
Senior Management Assistant |
| Marshal Cortes |
Senior Clerk Typist |
| William Petito |
Manager, Residential Warranty Program (private plan) |
| Thomas Ross |
Manager, New Home Warranty Program (state plan) |
| Fran Snyder |
Manager, OPRA Mediation Program |
