Ninian Stephen Law Program: New Legal Thinking for Emerging Technologies with Professor John Zeleznikow

For the first in the Ninian Stephen Law Program Seminar Series, CAIDE presents Professor John Zeleznikow to speak about Access to Justice through the use of Online Dispute Resolution. The Ninian Stephen Law Program: New Legal Thinking for Emerging Technologies is a four year initiative powered by the Menzies Foundation. ‘New legal thinking’ describes the kind of skills that lawyers need to go beyond the analysis of law based on existing precedent and legislation, this project aims to understand the gaps and address them with an education program for Lawyers in Australia and the Asia Pacific.

One branch of legal tech that holds particular promise for less sophisticated parties is access to justice (“A2J”) through the use of online dispute resolution (“ODR”). This is because ODR uses technology to enable online claim diagnosis, negotiation, and mediation without the time, money, and stress of traditional court processes. Indeed, courts are now moving traffic tickets, landlord-tenant, personal injury, debt collection, and even divorce claims online. The hope is that legal tech such as online triage and dispute resolution systems will provide means for obtaining remedies for self-represented litigants (“SRLs”) and those who cannot otherwise afford traditional litigation. Current online processes seem focused mainly on case management and communication, neglecting the need for more imaginative and innovative uses of technology. We propose a six-module system for ODR programs that identifies gaps in development where new technologies are needed to advance A2J.