Jennifer Drechsel Bailey is a retired American judge who served for 30 years in Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County.
She is recognized nationally, statewide, and locally for her work on improving justice in the civil litigation system through studying, understanding, and implementing effective changes to court and judicial case management.
[4][8][9][10][11] In 2013, Chief Administrative Judge Bertila Soto issued an order creating the International Commercial Arbitration subsection within the Complex Business Litigation section.
[15] This statewide task force's final report focused on early mandatory mediation as a means to alleviate some aspects of this crisis and achieve better outcomes.
In early 2010, the Eleventh circuit implemented a mandatory mediation program in foreclosure cases in Miami, based on the task force's recommended model.
Bailey coordinated the Miami circuit court program to address the crisis "via case management processes that helped resolve foreclosure cases in a timely manner while protecting litigants’ rights...."[16][17][18][19] Bailey served as Dean of the Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies from 2000 to 2005.
The CCJ worked with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) in putting together a widely experienced 23-member committee to carry out research and make recommendations.
It quotes Bailey on the kind of case management necessary to achieve these ends: "Active Case management provides real-world solutions for the real-world problems of cost, access and delay that litigants and lawyers experience everyday.”[27] In 2021, Bailey was named to the 24-member NCSC Board of Directors.
"[29][4] Bailey was later appointed as a member of the Judicial Management Council's Workgroup on the Improved Resolution of Civil Cases.
[5][32] Bailey received her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from the Peabody School of Journalism at the University of Georgia in 1980.
[17][22][33] Her graduate thesis, Why Don't Judges Case Manage?, was published as a 150-page article in the University of Miami Law Review in 2019.