Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31October 2016 LocalGovernmentLawyer 18 Online dispute resolution (ODR) has gained ubiquity in recent years as an industry conversation topic. There are numerous examples of its use in practice, but for many legal professionals it has yet to manifest as a working reality. In the age of “digital by default”, HMCTS Reform, and the Briggs Review, however, is the use of technology to resolve disputes about to come of age in England and Wales? If so what will be the impact on local authority lawyers? And what can local authority legal teams learn from the broader application of ODR in the legal market? I aim to address these issues with reference to the Local Government Lawyer survey (see p4] into local authority litigation, as well as original Thomson Reuters research into the topic. Let’s start by clearing up some terminology. Defining ODR When Thomson Reuters set about investigating the use of ODR technology across the legal industry [see: The Impact of ODR Technology on Dispute Resolution in the UK], we quickly discovered that the question “what is ODR?” has as many answers as respondents. The various perspectives of law firms, judges and court staff, mediators and barristers differed widely. Examples covered a wide range of technologies deployed in many different ways. Sometimes these technologies are used off-the-shelf to deliver incremental improvements in an existing resolution process – like a mediator using Skype to connect cost-effectively with distant parties. Sometimes they are purpose-built to resolve disputes in radically new ways – like the Smartsettle system which matches blind bid settlement offers. At present we’re using the following working definition: any use of web- enabled technology to resolve a dispute. No type of resolution process is excluded: arbitration, adjudication and good old- fashioned adversarial court systems are all employing new technologies to reach – hopefully – better and quicker outcomes. How is the Online Court different? The Online Court proposed by the Civil Justice Council, and endorsed by Lord Justice Briggs, will incorporate some ODR technologies within a larger framework including online investigative triage, court sponsored conciliation, the use of Case Officers, paperless hearings, remote hearings, and a less adversarial and more investigative court. As Lord Justice Briggs acknowledges, each of these elements is already employed to some extent in some part of the English and Welsh judicial system. The ambition lies in bringing all these things together into a single court. The essential features of the court will be: (a) users will primarily approach it online, and (b) it will explicitly aim to make things easier for parties who do not have a lawyer. This will be achieved partly through an online triage system to help the LiP diagnose their legal issue, prepare their position and make their submissions. This is probably the most radical use of ODR technology envisaged by the Online Court programme. It is also likely to be the hardest to crack. Desmond Brady looks at whether the use of technology to resolve disputes is finally about to come of age and assesses the potential effects on local government lawyers. ODR and the online court: the implications for local authority lawyers