As an experienced attorney and mediator, I have watched and participated in the evolution of the Court Administered Dispute Resolution Program (CADRe) with awe. The CADRe program is the most recent in a series of initiatives reshaping the administration of civil justice in California.

At the core of this movement is the revolutionary concept that California’s courts are not simply a place where legal disputes are tried before a judge or a jury. The CADRe program and those like it across the state adopt the premise that the courts best serve the public by providing guidance, direction and resources enabling parties to resolve their legal disputes in a variety of ways which best meet their needs. This is in keeping with the evolution of thought about ADR; no longer are mediation, arbitration or neutral evaluation seen simply as "alternatives" to trial. Instead, there are several dispute resolution processes available to the parties, any one or more of which may be "appropriate" in meeting the disputants’ needs. Those processes include mediation, arbitration and neutral evaluation, among others, as adjuncts to litigation and trial, not as lesser "alternatives." Hence the term ADR has come to mean "Appropriate Dispute Resolution."

Thus, the CADRe program illustrates the ability of the courts to enhance the quality of justice by providing litigants with education and resources concerning the power they have to control the timing, expense and outcome of lawsuits. The development of the CADRe program coincides with a change in the way lawyers serve their clients. More attorneys now accept a range of Appropriate Dispute Resolution processes, including mediation, as a means of meeting the needs of their clients in a timely and cost- effective manner. The bench and bar have therefore fulfilled their historic mission of improving access to and the quality of justice by adopting the CADRe program.

This does not mean, however, that the CADRe program will make litigation and trials a thing of the past. What it does mean is that litigation and trial are reserved for those admittedly rare cases in which other means of appropriately resolving the dispute meet the parties needs less effectively. The statistics have always suggested that over 90% of all civil actions filed are resolved prior to trial. There is no reason those cases should be resolved after unnecessary time, expense and aggravation have been incurred by the parties. The CADRe program assists the parties in taking control of that 90% of the cases and resolving them quickly, efficiently and effectively through the use of methods such as mediation, arbitration, neutral evaluation and special master case management.

The Santa Barbara court and bar are to be commended on adopting an outstanding court administered dispute resolution program. By providing litigants and their counsel with an early opportunity to learn about appropriate dispute resolution methods, and by furnishing a well-qualified and pre-screened panel of neutrals in each dispute resolution field, the CADRe program has already succeeded in enhancing the quality of justice in Santa Barbara County. One can only hope that other counties will, pardon the pun, follow suit.