The Digitalisation of the Judicial System: Online Tribunals and Courts

The option of an online tribunal or court is not a completely novel idea and it is one that is gaining traction in a number of jurisdictions, such as the e-Courts in China,2 the Civil Resolution Tribunal in Canada and the (very similar) proposal to establish an Online Court in England and Wales.3 The latter two initiatives follow the idea of the multi-door courthouse, which was first posed by Professor Sander in the 1970s at the Pound Conference in the US.4 The rationale behind the multi-door system is to assist litigants to find the most appropriate dispute resolution method for their disputes. Interestingly, these updated initiatives are based on lessons and techniques from modern online dispute resolution (ODR) and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) which are resolving ‘huge numbers of relatively low value or low stakes cases … simply, quickly and cheaply by avoiding hearings all together’.5 This article examines how technology and ODR/ADR techniques are being imbedded into the judicial system, and it does so discussing in particular two notable initiatives: the Civil Resolution Tribunal in British Columbia, Canada and the proposal for an Online Court for England and Wales.