Mediation Program Statistics
By John C. Schafer
In 1994 the Industrial Commission began implementing a pilot mediation program which was created by the General Assembly to determine whether mediation could (1) help settle workers’ compensation cases more efficiently for the parties and (2) save work for the Commission, thus freeing its resources to decide cases that cannot be settled. An evaluation subsequently performed by the Institute of Government concluded that the pilot program was very successful in meeting its goals, and further noted that "[a] ttorneys and certified mediators responding to a survey generally expressed favorable views toward the mediation program."
Although the Institute of Government’s evaluation supported the Commission’s plan to automatically refer all cases to mediation upon the filing of a Form 33 request for hearing, many observers believed that the mediation settlement rates and the overall effectiveness of the mediation program would be adversely affected when the Commission began referring all cases to mediation during the 1996-97 fiscal year, as opposed to the previous procedure of selectively referring to mediation those cases that appeared to be most suitable to a negotiated resolution. Nevertheless, as the volume of cases referred to mediation has steadily increased from 900 cases during the 1994-95 fiscal year to 7,524 cases during the 1998-99 fiscal year, the mediation settlement rates have not decreased, but have increased from 60% to 72.18%. If the cases that are resolved prior to scheduled mediated settlement conferences are also included, the Industrial Commission mediation settlement rate increases to 79.50%, and more than 92% of the cases that complete the mediation process are resolved prior to a formal hearing.
It is no coincidence that the Industrial Commission’s hearing backlog has been substantially eliminated over the past four years. Although the number of requests for hearing filed with the Industrial Commission has increased by 39.86%, from 5,820 during the 1994-95 fiscal year to 8,140 during the 1998-99 fiscal year, the "backlog", the large volume of cases that were ready for hearing but not yet heard, has been substantially reduced. The number of pending cases at the end of the 1998-99 fiscal year (795) was 35.68% lower than at the end of the 1997-98 fiscal year (1,236), and 81.27% lower than at the end of the 1994-95 fiscal year (4,244). As a result, those cases that are not being settled in mediation are being heard and resolved much more quickly by the Commission. During the 1998-99 fiscal year the average disposition time (from hearing request to final disposition, excluding appeals) was 20.73% faster than in 1997-98, and 52.38% faster than in 1994-95.
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N.C. Industrial Commission · Mediation Section · 4342 Mail Service Center · Raleigh, NC 27699-4342