Recently, the American Arbitration Association® (AAA®) leveraged its experience in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), software design, and generative AI to streamline and support the administration of a program in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that each year moves hundreds of credit card debt cases off a local court docket to a conciliation program that facilitates settlement between the parties. The system harnesses generative AI to review large volumes of documents automatically, helping court staff swiftly determine whether filing and eligibility requirements have been met. It serves as a blueprint for addressing a more general need: enhancing access to justice by making court-connected ADR programs easier to run and capable of handling higher volumes and different kinds of cases. This project was a collaboration between the AAA-ICDR Institute™, the AAA’s software development and legal teams, and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC).
How do court-connected diversion programs expand access to justice?
A good number of civil cases in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania involve consumer debt, typically credit card debt. In 2022, the court set up a diversion program that stays proceedings and helps the parties resolve well-pled cases quickly and amicably. Between January and August 2024, 480 individual consumer credit card debt cases were filed, and 420 were eligible for the diversion program. The parties reached settlements in 128 cases, plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew claims in 68 others, and 22 cases were dismissed by the Court or otherwise discharged. Only 202 cases were left unresolved and returned to the court docket, reducing the number of cases on the normal court docket by over 50%.
The headline benefit of court diversion programs is that they alleviate strain on busy court dockets by moving some of the more straightforward cases through a lighter-weight process. One of the AAA-ICDR Institute’s focus areas is “court- and government-connected ADR.” The Lancaster County program involves two approaches to ADR: negotiation and conciliation. Parties may opt to participate and agree to a settlement. If they cannot settle, they may return to the court. Many cases settle before the conciliation session.
Programs like this also grow access to justice—another AAA-ICDR Institute priority. Many credit card debt cases result in a default judgment because the consumer does not participate, often due to a lack of awareness. A default judgment leaves the consumer liable for the full amount claimed without confirming the amount is justified. And even absent default, financial resources may remain an issue in pursuing the case to a verdict. Diversion programs help ensure that defendants receive proper notice of the case, and that only properly documented debts proceed. Expanding access to justice for these cases is about building new pathways to resolution with effective safeguards in place to provide fair and efficient outcomes.
But diverting cases still involves court staff time; someone at the courthouse must work to move these cases through the diversion program. This involves confirming documents, scheduling and managing conciliation conferences, recording outcomes, and following up with participants. To accomplish this, the Lancaster County Program Coordinator devised a highly manual system involving many PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, and time-consuming document creation.
Developing the Court Diversion Eligibility Screener
Each year, the AAA guides parties through hundreds of thousands of cases. AAA staff rely on PRISM, a case management system tracking document submissions, case calendars, and financial details. The AAA has begun integrating AI-driven features into PRISM and other case-management infrastructure. For example, the AAA developed an AI workflow for arbitrations, automatically generating draft scheduling orders based on transcribed conference discussions, thus saving arbitrators time and parties money. This experience provided insights that accelerated the Lancaster County project.
In May 2024, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) connected Lancaster County with the AAA to explore solutions for more efficient administration of the Diversion Program. In August 2024, a team comprised of AAA software developers, a business analyst, and a representative from the AAA’s legal department visited Pennsylvania to study the Diversion Program Coordinator’s workflow. The AAA’s developers produced a browser-based system to simplify the workflow and make case information clearer and easier to review, manage and track.
How the Court Diversion Eligibility Screener benefits court staff
The Court Diversion Eligibility Screener allows court staff to click a button to open a new case. The first AI-driven feature, Microsoft .NET’s “Smart Paste,” enables users to select and paste case information from the public-facing docket into the new case management system, saving time and eliminating manual data entry errors. A separate AI tool then screens the case documents, applying several tests to confirm whether cases meet the seven criteria for eligibility for the program. This eligibility analysis feature—though more complex to develop—yielded significant efficiency gains. Previously, court staff had to read the documents in the court file multiple times to confirm eligibility. Now, the Program Coordinator uploads the case file, clicks a button, and the AI provides an analysis, citing directly to the relevant pages in the case documents to facilitate human review. If documents are missing, the generated Order instructs the filing party on what more must be filed. When additional documents are submitted, the AI-driven verification feature confirms whether the previously unmet requirements are satisfied. A key benefit of the system is its automation of time-consuming and repetitive tasks like data entry and case file review.
On the day set aside for conferences, the system lists scheduled cases and tracks outcomes. All activities are captured in an audit trail that establishes what happened and gathers data about program functionality.
Scaling the model: Taking diversion tools to more courts
The AAA is a nonprofit with a mission of giving back to the ADR community and helping those with disputes that might otherwise go unresolved. A cross-functional team of developers, business analysts, and legal staff solved a real-world problem for Lancaster County, providing insights on AI integration and ADR technology.
One crucial insight was how efficiently the team could build a fully functional case management system with an integrated eligibility screening tool. AAA staff, despite full-time responsibilities, were able to stand up a solution in just a few months. This efficient, repeatable process can make a difference even for a narrow use case.
The Court Diversion Eligibility Screener serves as a proof of concept for improving court-connected ADR processes for other high-volume caseloads, including landlord-tenant disputes, foreclosure actions, and no- and low-contest divorces. The AAA and the National Center for State Courts are working together to encourage more courts to pilot the tool.
For more information, view the complete case study.