In each of the First, Second and Third Departments, the Appellate Division may, in those cases it deems appropriate, direct the attorneys for the parties and/or the parties themselves, to appear for a pre-argument conference to consider the possibility of settling the action or proceeding or at least limiting the issues to be raised on the appeal. The Fourth Department discontinued its Civil Appeals Settlement Program in February 2007. In the First Department, the pre-argument conferences are presided over by retired justices. In the Second Department, the special referees are retired justices of the Appellate Division, appointed by the presiding justice of the Second Department. In the Third Department, most of the settlement officers are retired judges although two are retired attorneys well-respected in the legal community.
These programs have been very successful in eliminating appeals from the courts’ dockets. For example, in 2011, 2,745 cases were scheduled for a settlement conference in the Second Department.1 Of those, 50 percent were withdrawn, 19 percent before the conference was held and 31 percent after the conference. Of the 1,951 cases conferenced during 2011 in the Second Department, 841 cases or 43 percent settled during the conference. Assuming an average Day Calendar of 18 appeals, this amounts to a saving of the time of a panel of five justices for 46.6 days. In the Third Department, 370 appeals were mediated and 122 of those were settled (33 percent),2 while in the First Department, in 2012, 1,069 appeals were conferenced and 338 settled or otherwise disposed of (31.6 percent).3
