THREE YEARS INTO its alternative dispute resolution program, the U.S. District Court for New Hampshire is reporting good results - and a modification - in this ADR effort.

"I think it's serving the purpose," U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Muirhead said, noting that there have been 90 mediations since the program began in February 1999. "We have a good panel of mediators, and the program seems to be working efficiently."

In October 1998, after Congress approved legislation mandating that federal courts establish mediation programs, Chief U.S. District Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, in a twist on the usual practice of assigning judges to be mediators, fashioned a plan that draws in members of the New Hampshire Bar to mediate cases.

He asked Muirhead to oversee the launch of the program, and the recruitment of local lawyers began. Forty-one attorneys who met the program criteria signed up. The mediators were assigned to six separate panels, each focused on a different category of case; environment; intellectual property; routine diversity jurisdiction; discrimination/harassment; state actions denying individuals their constitutional rights (Section 1983); and highly complex litigation.

If a particular case is deemed suitable for ADR, the parties notify the case manager in the USDC clerk's office. The court had been sending the attorneys in the case a list of three lawyers to consider as potential mediators and each side had eliminated one; by that process of elimination, a single mediator was chosen.

However, under a new local rule that took effect Jan. 1, 2002, the court now provides the parties with the names of five potential mediators, from whom one is to be selected by mutual agreement.

"The suggestion was made by the Bar that, instead of [using] a 'struck' system, the lawyers be sent a list from which they can pick a mediator rather than just striking two of the three names," Muirhead said.

The change was proposed by a group of federal lawyers that act as a review board for the court's mediation program. The group also recommended that mediators be paid at a rate of $175 an hour, and its recommendation was adopted by the court.

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