Court-Annexed Arbitration - The National Picture

• NCJ Number: 97963
• Author(s): P A Ebener; D R Betancourt
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 361 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute for Dispute Resolution
• Corporate Author: Rand Corporation
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; Rand Corporation; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A survey of all 50 States on court-annexed arbitration found that 16 State and 10 Federal trial courts currently have authorized arbitration programs, and all but 2 of these have active programs underway in at least 1 major court.

Abstract

These figures show a 50-percent increase in court-annexed arbitration since 1980, when a survey by the Institute for Civil Justice found that 10 States and 3 Federal courts had court-annexed arbitration programs. The present survey also found that eight States were considering court-annexed arbitration programs as part of ongoing investigations of alternative dispute resolution options. Furthermore, 20 percent of Federal district courts had applied for funds to introduce new court-annexed arbitration, although funds are available for only 10 in the next few years. Twenty-six States did not perceive a need for arbitration programs and have no plans to initiate programs in the near future. Some common features of current programs are the restriction of authorized arbitration to civil cases involving money damages with a certain dollar amount; a system for determining eligibility; a system for allowing mutual agreement on an arbitrator from among attorneys with specific qualifications; and disincentives to appeal the decision reached in arbitration, usually involving payment by the appealing party of arbitrators' fees and other costs associated with appealing. The survey report provides the arbitration statutes and rules of the 16 States with programs and the arbitration rules of the Federal courts. It also provides tabular information on program features by jurisdiction, including types of disputes handled, jurisdictional limit, number or arbitrators, arbitrator compensation, appeal disincentives, and authorization. The States with programs include Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Federal district courts with programs are in California, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.