The mission of the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution is to help the Georgia Supreme Court fulfill its Constitutional mandate to “provide for the speedy, efficient, and inexpensive resolution of disputes and prosecutions” in the judiciary. The Commission does this by managing a statewide system that offers true and effective alternatives to traditional litigation. Those alternatives – mediation, non-binding arbitration, and case evaluation – give Georgia litigants lower-cost choices for resolving their differences, and they help save scarce court resources for those cases that cannot be resolved without judge or jury.
Since 1997, 178,000 cases have been resolved through the courts’ alternative dispute resolution (ADR) system. The ADR system benefits:
- Taxpayers – by reducing the need to pay for more judges, staff and courtrooms as Georgia’s population grows;
- Litigants – by offering effective, empowering alternatives to litigation that save them time, money and energy;
- Attorneys – by giving them more tools to satisfy their clients’ needs and by reducing overcrowding in the courts;
- Judges and Juries – by clearing dockets so they can concentrate their efforts on cases that require their services;
- Courts – by helping the judiciary use its resources more efficiently.
This website is a resource for people who want to learn more about the courts’ ADR system and for people who serve the system as ADR professionals.