Early Neutral Evaluation: The Second Phase

The federal court for the Northern District of California has operated an experimental program in expedited dispute resolution called Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) since 1985. After a lengthy and careful period of analysis and revision of the program, the Court has permanently adopted ENE on the basis of considerable evidence that it is an effective way to improve the resolution of civil disputes and on the basis of the strong endorsement of the program by those who have participated in it. This report first briefly describes ENE and the results from the author's study of the initial pilot phase. It then reviews the analysis of the data collected on the second experimental phase of ENE.

It concludes by describing how ENE will work in the Northern District on a permanent basis.