NCJ Number
76254
Journal
New York Law Journal Volume: 183 Issue: 99 Dated: (May 21, 1980) Pages: 1-8
Date Published
1980
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The article presents anecdotal examples of a growing trend away from expensive, cumbersome, and often unsatisfactory litigation toward a variety of alternatives, such as mediation and arbitration, which are similar to the methods used to resolve labor disputes.
Abstract
A good example of successful mediation of both criminal and minor complaint cases is the Cincinnati Institute of Justice Private Complaint Program, which has reduced the municipal court's criminal caseload by PROGRAM, third every year since 1974. The 4A Program (Arbitration as an Alternative to Adjudication), a program pioneered by the American Arbitration Association, has combined mediation and arbitration with great success. Recently, an experimental program in New York State, in which damage suits involving $6,000 or less must be arbitrated, was made permanent after cutting court dockets nearly in half. In addition, California's Economical Litigation Experiment, in which civil cases involving less than $10,000 are brought to trial almost immediately, significantly reduces the amount of time and trouble involved in pretrial discovery and information processing. The Detroit mandatory diversion program requires that civil suits must first be heard by a panel of arbitrators-mediators who confer and reach a conclusion. The parties are free to reject the panel's decision but only if they are willing to risk a serious penalty if the court decision is not substantially different from the panel's. The formal mediation between the Army Corps of Engineers and local farmers over the building of a dam across a river near Seattle shows how the results reached were shorter, cheaper, and more satisfactory to both sides than conventional environmental litigation. The article concludes that such examples may be the first step toward a new mode of dispute resolution. No references are given.