As part of our research into mediation settlement, we studied data collected and compiled by the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution. The GCDR is a Georgia Supreme Court Agency that oversees court-connected ADR Programs in Georgia.
The graphic below shows the percentage of cases reaching any type of settlement (full or partial) in mediations administered by court-connected mediation programs sorted by type of court. In other words, the produce this graph, all superior court mediation programs were grouped together, all state court programs grouped together, etc. We hope that presenting this data in user-friendly form will help those interested in this field.
The State Court Programs settlement rate (pink line) is dramatically impacted in 2005 by the addition of cases from the 9th JAD State Court Medation Program. In 2005, the first year of reported state court data from 9th JAD, there were 317 full or partial settlement in 327 cases (a 97% settlement rate).
Taking note of the exceptional state court results from 9th JAD in 2005, the overall settlement rates by type of court appear to remain fairly stable over time. Juvenile and Magistrate Court cases appear to settle through mediation at relatively high rates. The settlement rates in Probate and Superior Court cases appear in a middle range. The relatively small number of Probate Court cases being mediated accounts for the apparent variability of the settlement rate of Probate Court cases (the yellow line). Settlement rates are relatively low in State Court Mediation Programs.
The types of courts represented here have different (sometimes overlapping) jurisdictions. This data indicates that mediation produces settlements at higher rates in some types of courts than others. This supports the hypothesis that some types of cases are more suited to settlement at mediation than others.
This graphic has been available on our web site, www.centerforlegalsolutions.org, for some time, but we wanted to isolate our discussion of the court_type variable in this post to give readers an opportunity to comment.
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