Automatic Mediation For Employment Matters In SDNY

On January 3, 2011, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York began automatically referring all employment discrimination cases filed in SDNY, excluding cases arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act, for mediation under the Court's existing Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR") program. This requirement was made pursuant to an April 2010 amendment to SDNY Local Rule 83.12, which now allows for specific categories of cases to be automatically referred to mediation. The presiding magistrate will, however, retain the authority to exempt a case from automatic referral.

The Old Rule

Prior to this change, the decision of whether to mediate was left to the sole discretion of the parties. The parties often reported their preference to the Judge at the initial case management conference or at any point thereafter. Regardless, however, cases could not be referred to mediation unless both parties consented. Now, referral to mediation is