As soon as Chief Justice Deborah Poritz finished her speech to the State Bar Association in May � calling for belt-tightening, deferred purchases and other cost-cutting measures � Princeton solo Hanan Isaacs had his hand in the air.

If the judiciary was so strapped for cash, struggling to come up with $133 million for technology upgrades as Poritz had said, why didn’t it reduce its caseload by expanding mediation and requiring parties to finance it?