Joan Patsy Ostroy

My wife and I hired Patsy as our mediator. I cannot overstate what a terrible experience it was. Logistically, she was disorganized and confusing. One would expect that as someone in her position, having done this many times, she would have the process down to a science. But no clear instructi...ons were provided either in writing or verbally, leading to us having to repeatedly ask for clarification via emails that we were charged for each time. On several occasions she lost forms that we had filled out so we had to go back to go through the process again. She also did not file the forms with the court, and she did not inform us of of when we needed to file forms ourselves. Dynamically, she was clumsy, failing to recognize the emotional sensitivity of the process to the point where I found myself defending my wife against her awkward handling of vulnerable conversations. Yet, when it comes to billing, she somehow manages to conjure up the organizational skills she lacks as a mediator. On several occasions, we had brief email exchanges in which she clarified her own errors - and then she charged us for her time writing those emails. In the end, we fired her, having lost our entire $3,000 deposit, and had to begin again with a new mediator who not only restarted the process, but had to spend time digging into court records to understand the mistakes that Patsy had made. Look elsewhere.