The Montana State Bar's Dispute Resolution Committee and the University of Montana School of Law Mediation Clinic conducted a study of the Montana Supreme Court's pilot appellate mediation program in 2010. The program is mandatory for workers' compensation, domestic relations, money judgments, and any case that the Supreme Court "designates as appropriate for mediation." From January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2009, 707 cases were mediated, with 48% settling in mediation (19.8%) or after mediation (28%). Seven case types were mediated 20 or more times: breach of contract, damages, declaratory judgment, domestic relations, negligence, personal injury/death and workers' compensation. Of these, domestic relations had the highest settlement rate (56.3%), followed by workers' compensation (40.4%), breach of contract (37.0%) and negligence (35.0%). With only 5 of 24 cases settling (20.8%), declaratory judgment was the least likely of these case types to reach settlement. There were also 170 cases marked "other," of which 114 (67.1%) settled.

The study group also examined federal and state court appellate programs throughout the US. Each program is summarized and placed into a matrix of characteristics. Based on the outcomes of the program and the survey of other appellate mediation programs, the study group made a number of recommendations, including: hiring a full-time program administrator; refining the screening of cases to identify other further case types that would have a high probability of settlement; re-examining the purposes of the program in order to develop measures of success to track; and improving data collection, organization and tabulation.