By Adv.Rajesh, Chief Co-ordinator, ODR, SoftSettle Support Pvt. Ltd.
So far as most of the states of India and the countries like UAE, Qatar in Western Asia are booming MNCs, Corporations and IT companies it has become a challenging affair for business people to look forward to find a reasonable dispute resolution mechanism to settle the business disputes within the country and across their borders. As such when I was asked by some professionals from India to build an online segment in a portal which could cater to the needs of the business people in respect of settling their disputes, I had no second thoughts of integrating an ODR Club and ODR Resolution Center in the form e-courts in the portal under the domain of www.softsettle.com, making the justice possible by means of e-negotiation using self automated and stimulated software. In this context I would like to share some of the information I gathered, with you.
ODR promotes a virtual scenario to facilitate the mediator or any presiding officer interacting with the disputing parties. By formulating a technology stimulated ambience, ODR has cleared a way for bringing justice most transparently and thus winning the trust of the people.
The approach to justice will become easier and quick with the aid of technology supported ODR. A key advantage of resolving disputes through the use of cyber-mediation is that it avoids the issue of whether a particular court has jurisdiction over the dispute. Since disputants can bind themselves to resolution through an agreement, jurisdictional issues can be avoided altogether.
The claim of saving court litigation expenses used to be the primary advantage of the traditional dispute resolution. The business segments all around the world is experiencing a tough time as the result of the recession prevailing and dominating in all countries. It has become indispensable for even ordinary individuals to stabilize their financial position at this juncture. Hence to a great extent Online Dispute Resolution has become a blessing to the society so far as this method can be adopted to make the resolution process most cost effective. The online resolution mechanisms eliminate the need for physical travel which used to be long and tedious one to reach particular forum to participate in the alternative dispute resolution process. This level of convenience obviously saves both money and time.
This method invokes special attention of the business people so far as the features like convenience, transparency, competitiveness, neutrality to an extent strange to the traditional alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process. In addition ODR benefits the business community across borders and ODR is a borderless “service business” opportunity.
The parties to the dispute may be fairly relieved so far as they need not confront with each other directly. The virtual ambience facilitates the parties to enjoy a non-confrontational state of affairs so as to reach a settlement.
The willingness to integrate technology inspite of reservations about confidentiality is fueled by the belief that whatever is lost in terms of privacy is less valuable than what can be gained in terms of efficiency, transparency and convenience. So question remains answered without any second thoughts that people can forgo privacy for transparency.