Court-annexed Arbitration in Clark County, Nevada: An Evaluation of Its Impact on the Pace, Cost, and Quality of Civil Justice

Abstract

Nevada’s rapid population expansion over the past few decades has led to a dramatic increase in court caseloads, causing Nevada’s courts to be overburdened. To address the problem of increased civil litigation, the state established a program of court-annexed arbitration (CAA) in July of 1992 as an eighteen-month pilot project. This article presents the results of an eighteen-month independent evaluation of Clark County’s (Las Vegas) CAA program and examines how CAA affected the pace, cost, and quality of civil justice. The evaluation found that Clark County’s program successfully increased the pace of litigation, reduced costs associated with litigation, and maintained the satisfaction of participants. Nevertheless, the evaluation underscores the need to pay careful attention to the qualifications and training of arbitrators. Although increased compensation may not necessarily ensure that the program will retain highly skilled arbitrators, the evaluation indicates that at the very least improving the training course and raising the certification requirements would go a long way toward ensuring that CAA in Clark County is of the highest possible quality.