Is There a Role for Administrative Law Judges in ADR?
ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolution, has continued to grow in all sectors of our society, including government. In my home state of Oregon, the Legislature has actively promoted greater use of ADR in the public sector, first with the establishment in 1987 of the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission, and later with the public policy statement embodied in ORS 183.502, part of the Oregon Administrative Procedures Act (APA). Oregon has emerged as a leader in the effective promotion of ADR within its borders. However, the focus of that development has been court-annexed and court-mandated programs, community and neighborhood dispute resolution programs and public policy dispute resolution. Ironically, there have been very few ADR programs in the contested case context. Oregon’s experience has not been atypical. While most states have gotten on the ADR bandwagon with some type of government-sanctioned program, there has been considerable resistance to the notion that there is a place for ADR
