Read the passage and answer. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the inadequacies of the judicial system in the United States. Costs are staggering both for the taxpayers and the litigants - and the litigants or parties have to wait sometimes many years before having their day in court. Many suggestions have been made concerning methods of ameliorating the situation, but as in most branches of government, changes come slowly. One suggestion that has been made in order to maximize the efficiency of the system is to allow districts that have an abundance of pending cases to borrow judges from other districts that do not have such a backlog. Another suggestion is to use pretrial conferences, in which judges meet in their chambers with the litigants and their attorneys in order to narrow the issues, limit the witness, and provide for a more orderly trial. The theory behind pretrial is that judges will spend less time on each case and parties will more readily settle before trial when they realize the adequacy of their claims and their opponents' evidence. Unfortunately, at least one study has shown that pretrial conferences use more judicial time than they save, rarely result in pretrial settlements, and actually result in higher damage settlements. Many states have now established another method, small-claims courts, in which cases over small sums of money can be disposed of with considerable dispatch. Such proceedings cost the litigants almost nothing. In California, for example, the parties must appear before the judge without the assistance of the counsel. The proceedings are quite informal and there is no pleading - the litigants need to make only a one-sentence statement of their claim. By going to this type of court, the plaintiff waives any right to a jury trial and the right to appeal the decision. In coming years, we can expect to see more and more innovations in the continuing effort to remedy a situation which must be remedied if the citizens who have valid claims are going to be able to have their day in court. The word "staggering" is closest in meaning to —.