New Research from RSI on Civil Mediation in Illinois ~ The National Arbitration Forum Blog

Monday, April 20, 2009

New Research from RSI on Civil Mediation in Illinois

A study of a civil case mediation program was recently conducted by Resolution Systems in collaboration with the 17th Judicial Circuit of Illinois. An excerpt about the study from the CourtADR newsletter:

The 17th Judicial Circuit, based in Rockford, Illinois, had been reporting steadily declining numbers of mediations in its court-annexed program for large civil case mediation over the years. This was true for other court-annexed civil mediation programs in the state as well. The 17th Circuit, having seen a reported decline from 165 mediations per year to 17, decided to see if this was because the cases being reported to the court were just the tip of the iceberg, and some larger number were being mediated without a court order...The 2008 study, More than Meets the Eye: Civil Case Mediation Usage in the 17th Judicial Circuit of Illinois, found that five to six times more mediations took place than had been reported to the court.

For the full study, click here.