In the United States, approximately 100 million cases are filed every year in state trial courts. In more densely populated countries like India, this number is even higher, with over 30 million cases pending as of April 2018 across all tiers of the court, and only 2.48% of all cases getting a hearing. With the judicial system’s resources spread so thin due to the sheer quantity of cases, and relying on the pace of human decisions and physical courts, alternative dispute resolution proves to be a necessity.
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) refers to clearing a dispute without a trial or traditional court procedures. These systems, including mediation, arbitration, and neutral evaluation, can be used to tackle low stakes disputes in a less formal setting through the presence of a neutral party, which often results in greater satisfaction between the involved parties.
Disputes fit for an ADR response can vary from customer service disputes, family disputes, commercial claims, civil debts, and traffic violations. But as all aspects of society adapt to new technologies and digital resources, the future of ADR too lies in ODR, short for online dispute resolution.
ODR offers an even quicker, flexible way to resolve minor disputes through digital platforms that do not necessarily require human intervention as a neutral party. Time, labor, and material resources are all conserved in exchange for implementing smart technologies in their place. These technologies can assess a dispute, weigh in the opinions of all relevant parties, and offer concrete solutions to moving forward that benefits everyone involved and causes least friction.
The boom of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms are leading to the inevitable bond between AI and ODR, utilizing the power of AI predictions and data analytics to offer further mechanisms for ODR rooted in logical reasoning without much human input. Though there are some concerns to these transformations to how we approach legal disputes, like privacy concerns and lack of personal or emotional nuance to communication, new products and innovations are slowly emerging in the market to offer more sensitive, ethical ways to use technology in legal contexts.
By Trisha K Venkatesh
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