New York County Lawyers Association Committee on Arbitration and ADR Comments on Success of ADR Program in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Offer Encouragement to Users of ADR and Suggest Action by Corporate Counsel

The recommendation to increase both judicial commitment to sending cases into the ADR program and a monetary commitment to beef up staffing to support the ADR Administrator comes in the shadow of the sunset of the Congressional Act which provided the impetus for these programs: The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (the “CJRA”). The CJRA , which mandated court experimentation with differential case management and ADR programs, creating pilot districts and demonstration districts towards this end, sunsets at the end of this year. When the CJRA directives evaporate, the separate funding that has been earmarked for these courts’ programs will disappear, and courts will have to rely on the general funds of the judiciary, as dispensed by each district court.

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