Institutionalization: What Do Empirical Studies Tell Us About Court Mediation?

Abstract:     
In the past 25 years, federal and state courts throughout the country have adopted mediation programs to resolve civil disputes. This increased use of mediation has been accompanied by a small but growing body of research examining the effects of certain choices in designing and implementing court-connected mediation programs. This article focuses on the lessons that are emerging from the available empirical data regarding best practices for programs that mediate non-family civil matters. The authors discuss research about program design choices that will affect the success of the institutionalization of mediation, the likelihood of achieving settlement, and the perceptions that litigants have of the procedural justice provided by court-connected mediation.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 3

Keywords: mediation, alternative dispute resolution, empirical research, procedural justice, institutionalization of ADR

Accepted Paper Series