Justice Dept. to Use Arbitrators to Settle Some Civil Suits

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, joining a growing national move toward arbitration of civil disputes, said Thursday that the Justice Department will begin assigning some of its 170,000 civil cases each year to outside arbitrators.

Signing an order to implement the change, Reno said that she wants to resolve cases “more swiftly and at less cost to those involved--a result that is in everybody’s interest.” She asked each division head to help identify cases suitable for her “alternative dispute resolution” system.

“The Justice Department is the largest user of the federal courts,” she said. As a result, each U.S. attorney’s office also will be empowered to settle civil suits up to $1 million, but she emphasized that the new system will not apply to criminal cases.

Congress, which is studying ways to reform the civil justice system, will be asked to create a fund to pay for the mediators and arbitrators, Reno said. Legislation has been moving through the House and Senate to limit damages in product liability cases and medical malpractice lawsuits.

The American Bar Assn. applauded Reno’s action. Larry Ray, chief of the ABA’s dispute resolution section, called it “a good move” that should provide faster and less costly decisions for all parties involved.

“Civil cases often take several years to wind their way through federal courts,” Ray said. “With arbitration, we’re talking about months rather than years.”

Reno told reporters that the system would only be implemented where the government and the private party both concur on the alternative. Ray agreed that binding arbitration should not be forced upon anyone.

Justice Department officials said that the George Bush Administration had once studied the idea but concluded that there could be a constitutional problem if the government delegated powers to an outside arbitrator. However, Reno’s aides said they saw no such problem and Ray agreed.

Vice President Al Gore’s “reinventing government” initiative called on federal agencies to make greater use of alternative solutions in avoiding costly court actions.

Studies have shown that as many as 27% of all civil cases can be successfully shifted to arbitrators, Justice Department officials said. Dispute resolution systems already are being used by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Army Corps of Engineers, they said.