In 1997, the Alaska Judicial Council was tasked with proposing an alternative dispute resolution program for the Alaska court System. This report contains the research the Council conducted on ADR programs in other state and federal courts, a history of ADR programs in Alaska courts, and the Council's recommendations for establishing court-connected ADR programs in Alaska. The Council looked at mediation, arbitration and early neutral evaluation programs throughout the country, investigating referral models, neutral qualifications and ethical standards, and funding. In Alaska, courts had been experimenting with ADR since the 1970s, and in 1993 the Supreme Court adopted a rule authorizing judges to refer cases to mediation. At the time of this report, there were many ADR programs in effect in the Court System, including a settlement conference program for appellate cases and mediation programs for child in need of aid and child custody cases. Among other suggestions, the Council recommended that the Court System should continue the ADR programs that had already been established, increase ADR services with new pilot projects, and encourage greater voluntary use of ADR by attorneys and parties.