Sliwa's celebrity power in New York City could attract the 50,000 votes needed
to give the Reform
Party an automatic line on ballots for the next four years, ending the
expensive and difficult effort
to securing thousands of signatures for petitions
to be
placed on ballots statewide.
Costs budgeting for the benefit of these court users would appear
to be put in
place either
to limit the financial liability of losing
parties to a pre-determined sum, or
to deter litigation by introducing
expensive and time - consuming procedures they would not have
to comply with in, say, major forms of alternative dispute resolution such as arbitration.