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The article offers information about the Office of Chief Counsel (OCC) under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the issues it is facing. The office is composed of 90 lawyers and 20 support staff and remains a part of the Office of General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A change in an FDA policy showed that OCC is responsible for reviewing categories of warning letters with controversial issues. Other issues facing the OCC are Internet use and the enactment of Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The study of civil cases handled by Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) indicates that use of ADR can be an efficient and effective procedural solution to the problems of time and cost in the justice system without sacrificing the quality of macrojustice. When ADR was used, 65% of cases settled (only 29% of cases settled when it was not used). Significantly more cases settled when ADR was voluntary than when it was mandatory (71% vs. 50%), and tort cases settled with more frequency than employment discrimination cases (73% vs. 60%). When using ADR, AUSAs subjectively estimated that the process saved significant time and money. A USAs spent an average of $869 in neutral fees and estimated that the process saved $10, 735 in litigation expenses per case. AUSAs spent an average of 12 hours preparing for ADR and 7 hours in the ADR process per case, which they estimated saved 88 hours of staff time and 6 months of litigation time per case. Analyses of various macrojustice outcomes show that ADR outcomes were not significantly different from litigated outcomes, indicating that the process was neutral, favoring neither private parties nor the government. While these statistics are descriptive, a final analysis shows that the earlier a case is referred to ADR, the shorter its time to disposition. In sum, the study provides a better picture of how ADR is used by the government in federal court cases, and suggests that ADR has the potential to improve dispute processing without sacrificing the quality of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]