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44 La. L. Rev. 1725 (1983-1984)
Alternate Dispute Resolution

handle is hein.journals/louilr44 and id is 1741 raw text is: ALTERNATE DISPUTE RESOLUTION Kenneth J. Rigby* THE NEED In the last few years, the tremendous increase in the amount and com- plexity of litigation, both civil and criminal, has overburdened the judicial system of the United States. This increase has resulted in crowded dockets, delays, and assembly-line adjudication. The response has been increases in the number of courts, judges and other court-related personnel and their attendant increases in the cost to the public of administering the judicial system.' The problem of the crowded courtroom syndrome has received the attention of all levels of the judicial system. In 1978, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger observed: [Tioday, American courts are hopelessly unequipped to handle the tremendous workloads imposed on them by our burgeoning population and modern technology.2 Additions to judicial machinery have failed to keep pace with the increase in litiga- tion. In 1982, Chief Justice Burger wrote: We must now use the inven- tiveness, the ingenuity, and the resourcefulness that have long characterized the American business and legal community to shape new tools .... We need to consider moving some cases from the adversary system to administrative processes, . . . or to mediation.3 Prior to the Civil War, divorce was not a social phenomenon war- ranting statistical recordation in the United States. Divorce statistics were first collected in 1867;' in that year, the total number of divorces in the United States was 9,937, or about .03 divorces for every 1,000 people. By 1967, the number increased to over 500,000, or about 4.2 divorces for every 1,000 people. In 1980, 1.19 million couples ended their mar- riages in the United States.' This increased to 1.21 million divorces in 1981, a divorce rate of approximately 5.3 divorces for every 1,000 people. 1982 marked the first decline in twenty years, with approximately 1.18 million couples obtaining a divorce, for a divorce rate of 5.1 divorces for every 1,000 people. Many commentators predict the continuation of the national trend of a slow rise in the divorce rate during the next decade or two.' In Louisiana, the trend in divorce rate parallels the national trend Copyright 1984, by Louisiana Law Review. * Member, Louisiana Bar Association 1. N. Pearson & R. Thoennes, Divorce Mediation: Strengths and Weaknesses of Alter- native Means of Family Dispute Resolution 51, 52 (1982). 2. Annual Report on the State of the Judiciary (January 1978). 3. Annual Report on the State of the Judiciary (January 1982). 4. C. Vetter, Child Custody: A New Direction 9 (1982). 5. Wolff, Family Conciliation: Draft Rules for the Settlement of Family Disputes, 21 J. Fam. L. 213, 214 (1982). 6. C. Vetter, supra note 4, at 11.

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