The remedy is now in the hands of three court-appointed referees, something Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is closely monitoring.

Meanwhile, a panel of three court-appointed referees still must devise a new, presumably fairer formula for state aid.

On Thursday, a court-appointed referee found that a bylaw amendment proposed by Bank of New York during a recent proxy fight had passed.

The company said it had agreed to create a fund of $7 million for claims made by the fishermen, which will be evaluated by a court-appointed neutral referee.

Three court-appointed referees estimated last week that the cost of compliance could be an additional $23 billion over the next five years.

The court's clerks are supposed to verify the validity of the divorce papers, then forward them to a judge or court-appointed referees for signing, court officials said.

On June 22, 2004, after receiving the report from the court-appointed referee, the judge released the files that were deemed consistent with the interests of Ryan's young child.

A court-appointed referee then auctions off the property.

The judge ordered the city to turn records over to a court-appointed special referee, who would review them to determine whether they should be disclosed to the newspaper.

After 11 years of litigation in place of government action, three court-appointed referees finally reported this week on how much money it would take to fix the city's schools.