Court-Annexed Mandatory Arbitration Annual Report Fiscal Year 2005 - Twentieth Judicial Court | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts

Twentieth Judicial Circuit
(St. Clair County)

Arbitration Program Information

The Twentieth Judicial Circuit is comprised of five counties: St. Clair, Perry, Monroe, Randolph and Washington. The Supreme Court approved the request of St. Clair County to begin an arbitration program in May of 1993 and the first hearings were held in February 1994. The arbitration center is located across the street from the St. Clair County Courthouse. A supervising judge is assigned to oversee arbitration matters and is assisted by an arbitration program administrator and an administrative assistant.

DATA PROFILES

St. Clair County

Following are charts and diagrams which contain data from State Fiscal Year 2005.

While cases referred to St. Clair County's arbitration program vary annually, an average of 1,992 cases per year were referred to arbitration over the past five state fiscal years.

The chart above presents information regarding the total number of cases litigated in arbitration which yielded either a disposition or, ultimately went to trial. Program data indicates that either a settlement or dismissal was reached in 90% (2,127 of 2,355 cases were disposed) of the cases filed in the St. Clair County arbitration program for State Fiscal Year 2005. This disposition rate is slightly higher than the five year average of 86% and is above the statewide average of 84%.

A more significant performance indicator for arbitration, however, is measuring the number of cases which, having completed the arbitration process, proceed to trial. In St. Clair County, less than 1% of cases (7 of the 2,355) filed in arbitration proceeded to trial.