Wissler, Dauber report on arbitration research

A report on a recent Arizona Supreme Court study of court-connected arbitration is summarized by two faculty members of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in the Summer 2007 edition of Dispute Resolution Magazine.

 In the article, "Court-Related Arbitration, Access, If Not Efficiency," Rosell Wissler and Bob Dauber examined the structure, cost and time savings, access to and lawyers' opinions of compulsory, nonbinding arbitration in the civil court system.

 Both in Arizona and other jurisdictions, Wissler and Dauber concluded, "court-connected arbitration does not appear to reduce, but also does not substantially improve, the effectiveness and efficiency of dispute resolution. It does, however, seem to increase litigants' access to a hearing."

 The article was adapted from a forthcoming article, "Court-Connected Arbitration in the Superior Court of Arizona: A Study of Its Performance and Proposed Rule Changes," by Wissler, research director of the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Program, and Dauber, a clinical professor.