Here are 7 key benefits of online dispute resolution:
1. Accessibility and freedom of choice
Choice of professional services is no longer limited by distance and time zones. Increasingly, consumers engage professionals who best fit their needs, rather than the best that is available in their area.
I deal with disputes throughout Australia. I have mediated disputes with parties located in Europe, Asia and North and South America.
2. Flexibility and Convenience
Location and time zones need not impact your ability to participate in dispute resolution. Parties can engage from any location at any time. All they need is a device and an internet connection.
Parties with mobility issues can participate from their own location without travel. Captions can be used. With virtual breakout rooms, parties and their lawyers need not be in the same physical location to be able to confer with privacy and confidentiality.
Online dispute resolution is a flexible process that doesn’t have to replication a traditional, in-person mediation moved online. The mediation can incorporate the use of email or text messaging, whether to augment a video conference or in its place.
3. Cost Efficiency
There is no venue cost and no travel.
Online platforms facilitate flexibility, whether that is more convenient scheduling or a flexible process that may use or blend video, phone, email and text. It saves time and money.
4. Better safety
Online dispute resolution avoids the need to have parties in close proximity. Even in a shuttle process, when parties are in different rooms, in-person dispute resolution may be inappropriate if there are concerns for safety. Simply knowing that the other party is up the hall can be extremely unsettling.
As is now well known and as was first published in my research “The prevalence of allegations of family violence in proceedings before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia” (Family Law Review Volume 7 No.1 April 2017), allegations of family violence are present in 80% of parenting cases and in 87% of property adjustment cases.
Online dispute resolution, especially when conducted as a “shuttle”, with no direct communication between the parties, affords the opportunity for safer dispute resolution (of course, always with the consent and input of the parties).
5. Less stress
It is emotionally demanding of parties, who have shared an intimate relationship with each other and are now separated and perhaps not on the best of terms, to expect them to engage directly with each other, let alone, in a lawyer-assisted process, with three strangers in the room – the party’s lawyers and the mediator.
Giving parties a choice as to whether they want to be in their own location (even if with their lawyer at their lawyer’s office) and whether they want to communicate directly or participate in a shuttle, can dramatically alleviate stress and make parties more comfortable (in fact, the vast majority of parties I speak with are incredibly relieved to know they have that choice).
If parties are less stressed and more comfortable, they make better decisions. This maximises the prospect of agreement.
6. Improved engagement
Parties who are more comfortable are more engaged. Better engagement improves the chances of an agreement being reached.
Parties are generally more relaxed in online dispute resolution. The absence of physical presence means parties are not as hyper-vigilant as occurs if on screen together, less distracted by body language and visible cues and better able to concentrate.
7. Better Communication
Dispute resolution is all about communication. Online dispute resolution allows better communication and better mediator control of negotiation. This includes an enhanced ability to filter messages, reframe statements and proposals, facilitate better articulation of positions, better turn-taking, minimise disruptions and interruptions and encourage better listening and reflection.
