Evaluation of Alternatives to Court Adjudication (From Final Report of the Divorce Mediation Research Project, 1984 - See NCJ-98054)

• NCJ Number: 98055
• Author(s): J Pearson
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 48 pages
• Grant Number(s): 90-CW-634
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Corporate Author: Assoc of Family and Conciliation Courts
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This literature review examines the use of alternative programs and the effectiveness of those programs in achieving a broad range of objectives in divorce and postdivorce conflict.

Abstract

In the past decade, both mediation and arbitration experiments have grown tremendously. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, efforts were undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of informal dispute resolution alternatives exclusively in terms of caseloads and costs. More recently, however, evaluation studies have examined the extent to which mediation and arbitration have achieved such objectives as developing compromise outcomes, satisfying users, and successfully disposing of cases. Analysis reveals that voluntary mediation and arbitration programs fail to attract large numbers of disputants and that this affects their ability to be effective, reduce the burden of caseloads on courts, and promote the development of a cohort of experienced dispute resolvers. Compulsory court-based mediation and arbitration programs appear to satisfactorily handle many more cases and, in some settings, have proven highly cost effective and helpful to courts. Further, evidence suggests that litigants and attorneys experiencing arbitration are at least as satisfied as those experiencing adjudication. Additional experimentation and evaluation is needed to identify the ideal format for implementing various alternative dispute resolution programs. Included are 75 references.