ADR Research at the Crossroads

One of the remarkable aspects of the ADR movement is the empirical research that it has engendered. The granddaddy of court-administered alternative dispute resolution--the pretrial settlement conference--was the occasion for the first experimental study of an innovative legal procedure.' Small claims courts--another early alternative to full-fledged litigation--were put under the microscope in the 1960s.' Over the years, a host of empirical studies on the adoption, implementation and consequences of court ADR programs has been published.'