Within the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Dispute Resolution (ODR) promotes and facilitates the broad and effective use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes by the Department of Justice and throughout the Executive Branch of the federal government more generally.

The office is responsible for promoting and evaluating the use of ADR at the Department. As such, it is interested in learning from the diverse experiences that the 94 U.S. Federal District Courts operating across the country have had with regard to both voluntary and court-mandated mediation programs.

Our work

Step 1: Develop a survey tool of Assistant US Attorneys around the country, asking them about their experiences with both court-mandated and voluntary mediation processes.

Step 2: Conduct key-informant follow-up interviews with selected Assistant US Attorney’s offices, to find out more about particularly successful mediation processes.

Step 3: Analyze and compile the data.

Final Product

Report to ODR capturing factors affecting the use or non-use of mediation; barriers to mediation use; reasons why mediation sometimes leads (or does not lead) to resolution, and recommendations to ODR for a more effective integration of ADR into the regular litigation process.