H-1386              _______________________________________________

                                                    HOUSE BILL NO. 919

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Representatives Armstrong, Wineberry, Locke, Pruitt and P. King

Read first time 2/13/87 and referred to Committee on Judiciary.

AN ACT Relating to dispute resolution; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The state administrator for the courts shall contract for the performance of a two-year demonstration project to determine the effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution using the model center approach adopted by the legislature in chapter 7.75 RCW.  The project shall be conducted in King county by a center established under chapter 7.75 RCW as a nonprofit corporation having a broadly representative board of directors and which is organized exclusively, as set forth in its articles of incorporation and bylaws, for the resolution of disputes and whose plan of operation has been approved pursuant to RCW 7.75.020 before the effective date of this section.  The project shall be conducted in accordance with chapter 7.75 RCW.  The focus of the project shall be to provide an alternative forum for the resolution of disputes for the purposes of reducing social tensions which lead to crime, promoting lasting settlements where all parties to a dispute can be winners, settling disputes more quickly and less expensively than through the judicial process, and helping to reduce congestion in the Seattle and King county court systems as contemplated in the court improvement act of 1984.

          The state administrator for the courts shall submit a report to the judiciary committees of the senate and the house of representatives on the results of the project by December 1, 1989.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The sum of two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1989, from the general fund to the state administrator for the courts for the purposes of this act.