Online Dispute Resolution Moves to the Courts

The second half of 2018 saw a marked increase in conferences including, if not focused solely on, developments in Online Dispute Resolution and online mediation. The main development  has been the growing interest in courts around the world in creating online court facilities and integrating ODR tools into their justice system.

I will be posting here more details of each conference, with presentations and papers being currently uploaded to the library at www.odrtraining.com.

Conferences at which  I have presented on ODR/Online Mediation and Online Courts  in the second half of 2018 include:-

Belgrade, Serbia – “Mediation as the Primary Option for Commercial Dispute Resolution” (a somewhat clunky translation!)  organised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The European Centre for Dispute Resolution, and The Chamber of Commerce  and Industry of Serbia and funded by the UK Governments’ Good Governance Fund.  

Liverpool, UK – “Online Dispute Resolution- Justice Re-Imagined” . I organised this conference. Apart from a keynote speech from Lord Briggs, and speakers from 20 countries, the highlight was a live simulation of the Brexit negotiation (using artificial rather then political intelligence)  of Smartsettle’s AI driven Infinity platform  and in which Diana Wallis, a former Vice -President of the European Parliament participated. See www.odrconference.com.  Here is a  paper reporting on the event, including on the Brexit simulation,  from one of the delegates. As well as at www.odrtraining.com the papers for the conference are now published in a special edition of the Internal Journal of Online Dispute Resolution.

Zagreb, Croatia –  The 9th International Conference on Alternative Dispute Resolution, co-organised  by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, the Council of Europe and the European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ), was held at the  Chamber of Trades and Crafts of Croatia. 

Auckland, New Zealand- The 18th International Conference on Online Dispute Resolution , the main international event on ODR and which was launched in 2001 at the Palais Des Nations in Geneva , sponsored  by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and which has continued to travel around the world ever since, was held, for the first time, in New Zealand hosted by the Department of Law at the University of Auckland. A large number of the presentations featured the growth around the world  in online courts.

Melbourne, Australia – The Sir Zelman Cowen Centre of the law faculty at the University of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia held what  is planned to be the first of an annual series called “ODR-The State of the Art”. See www.odrmelbourne.com for the extensive list of speakers. Delegates were given a ‘sneak peek’ at the developing online service being the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)  as well as a presentation by Shannon Salter. chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal in that other ‘Victoria’ being the one in British Columbia, Canada. The CRT is Canada’s first online tribunal which  currently deals with small claims disputes under $5,000, strata property (condominium) disputes, and various types of motor vehicle accident claims. 

                       

Graham Ross

Graham Ross is a UK lawyer and accredited mediator with over 30 years experience in IT and the law. Graham is the leading UK expert in the field of ODR (Online Dispute Resolution). He co-founded the UK's first ODR service, a blind bidding service called We Can Settle in 2000,… MORE >