20
[64]
In CM 12.6, ALRI proposed a distinction between managing litigation and
facilitating settlement. Encouraging the parties to consider settlement or to make use
of ADR processes was seen as an aspect of managing litigation. In contrast,
facilitating settlement involves the active use of ADR methods in an effort to bring
about agreement between the parties. In effect, the judge steps outside the
authoritative role required to manage litigation and decide cases, and into a role more
akin to that performed by an outside facilitator in a private sector ADR process.
Writing in 1986, Galanter, viewed the interaction between conciliation (ALRIs
facilitation) and jud icial administration, including the exercise of a trial courts
coerci ve power (ALRIs encoura gement as a facet of managing litigation ) to lie at
the heart of the debate about whether or not judges should participate in settlement
processes.87 The debate continues.
[65]
The practice of facilitating settlement in a bi nding JDR suggests a similar need
to define the boundary between facilitating settlement and adjudicating. Litigants may
be confused about the capacity in which the judge is involved in a JDR, compared the
judges trad itional adjudicative authority at trial.
5. Cost and delay
[66]
ADR is thought to be faster and cheaper than litigation. However, if the dispute
is not resolved, time spent in ADR becomes an added step and cost. Moreover,
loading the civil justice system with processes at the front-end may create unnecessary
costs in cases where settlement could be reached without the procedural steps that are
imposed.
6. Disputant v. institutional motivations
[67]
As has been seen, significant shifts in emphasis follow the co-option of ADR by
government, the courts and big business. Whose objectives are being met by the
incorporation of ADR into the civil justice system? Are the right values being applied,
the right ends being served?
7. Public confidence in the civil justice system
[68]
An important weather vane is the impact of the co-option of ADR by the courts
on public confidence in the civil justice system. Public confidence is difficult to
gauge. In England, Jacobs attributes the momentum for change in the civil justice