Steve Cohen: “over the past decades, a consensus has emerged that traditional litigation is an inefficient way to resolve disputes.…”

“over the past decades, a consensus has emerged that traditional litigation is an inefficient way to resolve disputes. Not only is litigation costly, but due to its adversarial, contentious nature, litigation often deteriorates working relationships and fails to produce long-term solutions to problems. Private corporations recognized many years ago that certain types of disputes could be resolved much less expensively and with less acrimony by relying on techniques such as mediation, arbitration, and partnering, which collectively have become known as alternative dispute resolution or ADR. In 1990, Congress recognized that the Government lagged well behind the private sector in this field and in response enacted the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act to promote the use of ADR in Government agencies. Senators Grassley and Levin led the effort to pass this legislation and bring the benefits of ADR to the Federal Government. The act authorizes agencies to apply ADR to almost any type of claim involving the Government, requires the appointment of ADR specialists in each agency, establishes procedures for hiring neutral third-parties to help resolve disputes, and provides confidentiality protection to parties participating in ADR. S. 1224, the bill before the Senate, would permanently reauthorize this important legislation.”