SUMMER 2021
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ADR as an Alternative to the Courts Observations on the Pandemic from a Newly Retired Judge
By Hon. Elizabeth Allen White (Ret.) Hon. Elizabeth Allen White (Ret.) is NAWJ President Elect and an Arbitrator and mediator at JAMS, handling disputes in business and commercial, civil rights, employment, entertainment and sports, insurance, personal injury and torts, professional liability, real property and construction.
Now that I’m retired, I truly appreciate how much neutrals can assist the courts. This has become particularly true during the pandemic, with courts struggling to comply with social distancing and mask mandates, lternative dispute resolution (ADR) when most litigation has occurred virtually. has become ingrained in the fabric When I left my courtroom in January 2020, everything was conducted in person except of our judicial system. As a civil judge in the Los Angeles Superior for the occasional conference call. I followed Court, I handled a wide variety of matters: real this by a brief sojourn at the California Court estate deals gone awry, embattled entertainers of Appeal, where I served as a justice pro tem. When the pandemic hit in March, I, going up against directors and production companies, civil rights and employment cases, along with my appellate justice colleagues, pivoted nicely to working from home, where and a heavy dose of contract disputes and we were still able to access briefs, perform consumer actions. In over two decades as a legal research and write opinions. The judge, I saw my inventory of cases rise from around 400 cases to over 600 when I left the twice-monthly oral arguments were initially conducted telephonically, and later via the bench in 2020 to join JAMS as a neutral. virtual platform BlueJeans. Any conferences ADR is a generalized term that encompasses between the justices were conducted either telephonically or via Zoom. It was seamless. the field of mediation, arbitration, sitting as a reference judge to decide a single issue In the meantime, the nature of the in person and serving as a discovery referee to help work of the trial courts made pivoting to a the parties resolve thorny discovery battles. Whatever form it took, as a judge, I was always virtual environment much more difficult. The courts partially closed for a period of time, and grateful for those individuals who chose to work in the alternate private sector to resolve when they reopened, judges began working matters brought before public tribunals or that virtually from their chambers, with only a few jury trials conducted in larger courtrooms, bypassed those tribunals altogether. Their work kept my inventory in a manageable state. which are more suitable for social distancing.
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