Dispute Resolution – Are You Online With It?
By Stephen G Anderson LL.B
November 13, 2013
You know how some things seem to be destined to end up together? Like chocolate and peanut butter, movies and popcorn, strawberries and cream … (I’m making myself hungry!) Well the same is true of the internet and dispute resolution. I’m not sure there are many who would agree with me. The legal and mediation professions are not usually known for being the first to embrace new ideas. Tried and tested seems to be the way.
Yet online dispute resolution offers real business opportunities to anyone who takes an interest. The process range is enormous: from automated, asynchronised and adjudicated to assisted, synchronised and consensual. The potential market is very large: from people with disabilities, through participants who are outside the jurisdiction, to the price conscious.
Embracing new ideas, is one of the ways you can make a difference. It’s an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. It’s what I would call a seller’s market in that the demand can be created by the supplier. The Family Mediators Association asked me to present a workshop on online mediation for their annual conference this year. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be sharing what I learned with you. At the end of the series, you should know a lot more about the process.
Thanks Pamela & Wendy for the opening two lines 😉
I am Stephen G Anderson and I am a professional online mediator.
01473 487427
07702948410
stephen@andersonfamilymatters.com
www.andersonfamilymatters.com
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If bail and remand hearings can be suitable for video link surely mediation can be done online. However the fmc code seems to explicitly prohibit Skype and odr, yet the laa guidance recognises the appropriateness in certain cases – so without sounding too naive what really is the position?
Officially, John? The FMC code should be upheld. Unofficially, the FMC has no statutory regulatory status so can’t tell me what I can and cannot call mediation. Mediation must be voluntary, impartial, confidential with the participants deciding the outcome. I think that’s about it. Anything else, such as the duration of meetings, or whether or not face-to-face includes Skype or not, is really down to the mediator’s assessment and the participants’ buying in. There is a big job to do here at the FMC but at the moment they’ve got their work cut out negotiating their membership organisations’ way through the McEldowney report.
As is so often the case, we need to look elsewhere for leadership in this particular field such as the insurance and online buying industry who offer online mediations. As usual, the Americans are ahead of us in their creative and innovative thinking in this area. Personally, like you Stephen, I believe that online mediation can be very appropriate and suitable in many situations but like every mediation, it needs to be carefully managed to take account of the particularly circumstances.