054: ODR Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Part Three): Asking (and Answering) the Hard Questions with the NCSC

Mar 16, 2021

As much as we’d love to say online dispute resolution (ODR) is a clear-cut topic, it’s not. From questions about funding and whether such a platform actually increases access to justice, to how the states and their various court types have responded to ODR’s availability – there’s a lot of gray area.

Venture into some of these hot-button topics as we ask our friends from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) about these hard questions surrounding ODR and the changing legal landscape. Through their first-hand experiences and use-case stories, NCSC’s CIO Paul Embley and Consultant Diana Graski provide refreshing, outside-the-box perspective and helpful resources to guide those interested in ODR toward a well-informed decision.

Don’t miss these key conversation takeaways, including:

• The mixed bag of state-wide and individual court responses to the pandemic, including those who have embraced and adopted court tech and why many still have not

 

• The far-and-wide tools and outcomes that the courts, law firms and other legal counsel are seeking when they research ODR for specific case types, such as civil, traffic, family and others

 

• A briefing on the interesting story behind Iowa’s pre-pandemic push for ODR in landlord-tenant cases

 

• Deciding when courts become involved in disputes (i.e., waiting until the case is at their doorstep, or taking on a responsibility to provide information and actively participate in dispute minimization)

 

• Use cases of outside-the-box funding options, separate from filing fees, that would position ODR as a true path to increased access to justice

 

• The various ways of bringing court to the people, such as the Judge who sets up hearings in his RV and in tents

 

• Providing citizens with a continuum of options for the future of “going to court” and what that means

 

• Establishing personal relationships ahead of ODR adoption that support positive user experiences and helps to bridge people into these new ways of going about the court

 

• NCSC resources available to help courts and other legal counsel in their ODR research, such as ncsc.org/jtc