Court To Cut Funding For CDRC's

Gloomy news out of New York State:

...Among the latest budget cuts announced by the Office of Court Administration are in the Community Dispute Resolution Center program.

There, funding for the April 2011 through March 2012 period will fall to $1.2 million from $2.2 million in the last fiscal year.

Read the full article [here].

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Bohe on May 27, 2011 at 7:42pm

It is obviously unfortunate when ADR resources are cut. However, I'm not convinced that having conflict resolution centers/programs associated or funded by court administration systems is the best idea. There seems to be tension there - in one view, ADR already takes money/resources away from the "traditional" legal system, why should they further deplete a state's resources? It's not that I think the ADR programs should not be funded or that courts should not encourage people to use them. However, perhaps this cut will force the program to step out of the court system's shadow, be resourceful and reach out to new audiences. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Sherin Daniel on October 28, 2011 at 12:20am

I agree with Ms. Bohe that the budget cuts are unfortunate. I understand that the funding reduction can have a crippling effect in the program. However this might be the opportunity to revamp funding sources. As Ms. Bohe suggested, the program should step out of the court system's shadow and look for alternative means to raise funds. The center could also offer its services is some form of sliding-scale fee structure to meet the requirements of its participants without imposing a heavy financial burden.