With the financial crunch that has hit courts, jurisdiction after jurisdiction has asked what ADR’s role should be. Should ADR be the method through which courts can both serve litigants and save money, or is it a financial burden on courts that should be eliminated or privatized? In many courts in the US, the answer has been the latter. This was seen most recently with the closure of Los Angeles County’s ADR program – the largest in the country. As mediators there work to develop a private system to replace services the court once provided, the government of British Columbia is moving in a different direction. There, the eye is on developing integrated administrative systems, including ADR, that would limit use of the courts to those disputes most appropriate for litigation. (more…)
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What Does the Transformation of Justice Look Like? British Columbia Has an Answer
Jennifer Shack, June 7th, 2013Montana Overwhelmed by Record Number of Cases; Looks to Innovate
Jennifer Shack, May 7th, 2013Montana’s civil caseload topped 50,000 last year. That may not seem to be a lot to those in more populated states, but it’s enough to drive the state’s legislature to act. Citing an overwhelmed bench and litigants deprived of “prompt, careful consideration,” the legislature issued a joint resolution that the state evaluate the cost and effectiveness of current court processes and “identify measures that will help improve the administration of justice and promote the nonadversarial resolution of family law disputes.” It’s yet to be seen if the study will be undertaken, as studies requested by the legislature are prioritized at the end of the legislative session.
It’s great to see a state legislature looking to get data on court performance and trying to find evidence-based solutions to what appears to be a problem for the courts. They say necessity is the mother of invention. Here, it appears to be the mother of evaluation as well.
Oregon Senate Passes Bill to Expand Foreclosure Dispute Resolution
Jennifer Shack, April 24th, 2013Last year, Oregon created a dispute resolution program for non-judicial foreclosure cases. The program didn’t work as well as hoped. The program’s start coincided with an appeals court decision that pushed foreclosures into the judicial system. That, along with some issues with the legislation enacting the foreclosure dispute resolution program and lender reluctance to participate, led to very few cases being mediated. A lot of work has been done since then to find ways to encourage use of dispute resolution. The effort that appears to have gained the most traction is to expand the foreclosure dispute resolution program to include cases going through the judicial process. (more…)
RSI Talking about Research and Ethics at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section Conference
Jennifer Shack, March 28th, 2013If you’re going to the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Spring Conference in Chicago next week (April 3-6), I’d like to invite you to a lunch discussion during the Court ADR Symposium on Wednesday. I’ll be facilitating the discussion, “Developing a Structure and Process to Set the Mediation Research Agenda,” which will explore the possibility of taking research about ADR in the court context to a new level through the creation of a national Court ADR Research Consortium. (The ABA requires lunch registration.) (more…)
