Q Reminder: Initial Discussion Board posts due by Friday, responses due by Tuesday Students will be expected to post their first initial discussion board posting by Friday of each week. Discussion posts will be graded and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time. Students are expected to post their responses to peers by Tuesday. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time. Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas. The objective of this assignment is to enable you to demonstrate your understanding of how the increases and/or changes in court workloads are impacting the offices that are responsible for court management. It has been said (e.g., by Walter Olson in a 1991 book titled The Litigation Explosion) that there has been a “litigation explosion” in the courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. Respond to the following questions in an essay: • What does it mean that there is a “litigation explosion,” and is this accurate? (Be sure to address both trial and appellate levels.) • Are more cases being settled before coming to trial through a variety of mechanisms (e.g., plea bargaining, out-of-court settlement, mediation, arbitration)? • How does this "explosion" or the changes to how disputes are resolved affect court administrators? Also, respond substantively to at least 2 of your classmates with a minimum of a 1-paragraph response to each person. In this case, “substantive” means that your focus should be on the following: • Your agreement or disagreement with your classmates’ conclusions about whether a litigation explosion has occurred recently (over the last 2 decades) • Whether you agree or disagree with your classmates’ positions on how court administrators are affected • Additional thoughts stimulated as a result of points made by your classmates Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions: • What did you learn from your classmate's posting? • What additional questions do you have after reading the posting? • What clarification do you need regarding the posting? • What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates' postings? For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.