Is this yet another case in which New York is setting global trends? By the end of the year, the state courts in New York are due to have a system in place requiring that civil and commercial disputes be resolved through presumptive mediation. “Presumptive mediation” means an “automatic”, pre-trial, statewide program of court-sponsored ADR. In this context, the term ADR, and specifically its “alternative” first “A”, sounds increasingly like an oxymoron, as mediation reclaims its central position in the mainstream of the justice system.

While similar programs already exist (or did exist) throughout some state courts in New York (see e.g. another post on this blog dated 2014), the new scheme will mandate presumptive mediation statewide. The Report of the New York State ADR Advisory Committee released earlier this year offers a broad overview of court-sponsored mediation programs, including some empirical evidence that “court-sponsored mediation works“. The top two indicators of the effectiveness of mediation: participant satisfaction rates and settlement rates, are typically at levels above 60%.

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