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There are no current studies that have examined the differences in settlement rates for mediation panels in court-annexed mediation programs that use a volunteer panel versus a paid panel of mediators. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to study if there is a difference in the percentage of cases settled using mediation incourt-annexed mediation programs for volunteer versus paid mediators.

The methods used in this study were descriptive statistics using data collected from two different court systems; one using volunteer mediators and one using paid mediators. Charts and graphs of the data were collected and analyzed and display the results of the statistical analysis. The study concluded that paid mediators have double the settlement rate of volunteer mediators in the two court systems examined. The results of this study will assist public policy makers in designing future court-annexed mediation programs.