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Legal Observer, SoftSettle Support

Complex and high value disputes will remain the province of traditional alternative dispute resolution. However, with traditional arbitration increasingly incorporating modern technology into its proceedings, the distinction between online arbitration and traditional arbitration is becoming less clear. What cannot be denied is that with improved technology and automation, less complex disputes work will be claimed by online dispute resolution services. It is therefore imperative that lawyers continue to improve themselves and keep abreast of the latest legal and technological developments to avoid falling by the way side in the wake of technology’s relentless march.

The rapid expansion of commercial transactions and globalization has given rise to spiraling growth in arbitration at the national as well as international stages. Arbitration is one of the modern techniques of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that has gained a lot of prominence due to the freedom it offers to the disputants. Online Arbitration is a mixture of conventional Arbitration under Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996, combined with technological features requiring application of Information Technology Act 2000. The future of arbitration is online arbitration if India wants to cut down on its ever increasing backlog of cases and this form of ADR would allow quick settlements to international as well as domestic business entities.

Online arbitration with the help of online platform MEDIATOR AFFAIR is considered the closest to F2F arbitration. It involves the use of virtual court to conduct the arbitration process. The platform MEDIATOR AFFAIR allows registered participants to log into an electronic conference room from anywhere in the world using standard browser software. A list identifying all parties present appears on each participant's screen, and clicking on a participant's name opens a window to compose e-mail to that individual. There is also an area on each participant's screen to type messages to all participants. When sent, these messages immediately appear on the screen of all parties, identified with the sender's name and time. Participants on one side of a dispute who are in different locations may also caucus privately with each other and/or with the mediator during an online session. Two electronic conference rooms allow break-out sessions, during which the neutral may communicate with both rooms but parties in one room may not communicate with parties in the other.

Use of technology and the online environment for dispute resolution adapted by MEDIATOR AFFAIR should disclose the current availability of technology, like possibility of accommodating disputants' differences in language and culture, or incorporating audio and video streaming, or accessibility to ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION  persons with disabilities or with low levels of literacy, preservation of confidentiality and privacy of the parties, accessible from anywhere at any time, back-up and arrangements for alternative emergency access. Further disclosures are required regarding training of the players of the system like the arbitrator, mediator, potential participants/parties, in the use of online systems.