Metro Court Project: A Study of Mediation and Adjudication in Bernalillo County (Albuquerque), New Mexico, Small Claims Court, 1990-1992

This study used court records and interviews with disputants, litigants, and mediators in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, to compare the effects of ethnicity and gender in mediated versus adjudicated small claims disputes. Initial structured telephone interviews with both adjudicated and mediated claimants and respondents (Parts 1-4) were conducted. Follow-up questionnaires (Parts 6-8) were then administered to the initial interviewed groups. Data from mediators (Part 9) were collected from self-administered structured questionnaires. Pertinent questions from all eight survey instruments were combined into a master file (Part 5). This data collection also includes two qualitative summary files of adjudicated and mediated cases (Parts 10-11). The unit of analysis is the small claims case.

本研究利用美国新墨西哥州伯纳利欧县的法庭记录，以及对争议方（disputants）、诉讼当事人（litigants）和调解员（mediators）的访谈，比较了族裔与性别因素在调解（mediated）和裁决（adjudicated）两类小额索赔纠纷中的影响。研究首先对裁决及调解案件的索赔方（claimants）与被索赔方（respondents）开展了初始结构化电话访谈（第1-4部分）；随后向该初始访谈群体发放了后续问卷（第6-8部分）。调解员的数据（第9部分）通过自填式结构化问卷收集。所有八份调查工具（survey instruments）中的相关问题被整合至一个主文件（第5部分）。本数据收集还包含两份关于裁决及调解案件的定性摘要文件（第10-11部分）。分析单位为小额索赔案件。