Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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When the disputes concern smaller dollar amounts and jurisdictional challenges arise because of international participants, must we shrug our shoulders and respond, “It simply can’t be helped,” or that we are “powerless to do anything”?  Hardly.

Given the increasing industrial capabilities compounded with the downward spiral of global labor costs and disappearing national borders, our everyday transaction partners are farther away, yet entertaining transactions at lower dollar amounts.  Yet our courts cannot maintain this quickening pace and simply refuse to resolve issues immediately.  Expensive litigation and time-consuming processes continue to place traditional court dockets out of reach.  Additionally, formal jurisdiction is often not possible, so whatever mechanisms are used to resolve issues must gracefully leap state and national boundaries.

Can our courts work weekends? How about opening an all-night drive-thru for resolving disputes. Great. And did I mention cost? The process must be inexpensive, ideally free.  Can we do that? How soon? Well, yesterday would've been nice. But can you get on that immediately? Super. The world would really appreciate it.

Snicker now.  Realize later that these seemingly out of touch desires are nothing less than what the consumer demands.  And in the world of the almighty bottom line, the first one to accommodate the increasingly demanding consumer is the winner. Ask anyone from the maitre d’ at your favorite restaurant to the shrinking marketing departments at airline companies worldwide. The legal system must sprout a better answer than the traditional court processes. Without such an answer, the valley between real-life daily transactions and the law will widen, with the consumer left in the widening gulch.

A.   Online Dispute Resolution – Fast, Inexpensive, and Global

Conflicts arising from international and lower-dollar transactions can find relief with Alternative Dispute Resolution’s (“ADR”) newly minted sibling, Online Dispute Resolution (“ODR”).  “[D]ispute resolution isn’t really an alternative – the courts don't work online, so dispute resolution is often the default.

Online Dispute Resolution is the internet’s application of arbitration, negotiation, mediation and facilitation. ODR includes: group facilitation and organization similar to tools used at online sites www.yahoogroups.com and www.myevents.com, bundled into tools such as eBay's www.SquareTrade.com's largely automated mediation process, and www.cybersettle.com's "blind bidding" for quantitative negotiation.