Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is a mechanism to resolve disputes through the use of electronic communication technology. It often uses alternative dispute resolution (ADR) tools such as mediation, conciliation and arbitration. This mechanism not only provides citizens access to efficient and effective dispute resolution mechanisms, it also supports the formal court system by reducing the number of disputes that go to court, in turn helping address pendency in courts.
ODR is a wide field. It can be applied across sectors, dispute types, and jurisdictions for speedier, affordable, accessible dispute resolution. Application of ODR can range from dispute categories such as financial, matrimonial, property, civil disputes to disputes involving varied parties such as consumers/individuals and businesses/organizations. Disputes pending in formal institutions may also be transferred to ODR and ODR can also apply for interstate, or interjurisdictional disputes.
Recognizing the growth of ODR, multiple ecosystems and institutions are looking to integrate with multiple ODR service providers. Each of these ecosystems are required to connect with each ODR service provider separately & each ODR service provider is required to connect with the institutions separately. Moreover, consumers/parties to a dispute aren’t familiar with ODR/ODR service providers. Some of the opportunities for growth of ODR are listed below:
- Increased discoverability of ODR Service Providers: While institutions and ecosystems adoption of ODR is growing exponentially, end individuals aren’t familiar with ODR. Also, today an end individual can discover an ODR service provider only if both of them are on the same platform, this is called "Coincidence of Presence". ODR Service providers are naturally discoverable by implementing the protocol as any end user-facing application can access them. That means an individual does not have to specifically sign-up to an ODR Service Provider. They can remain on the application of their choice and discover ODR service providers based on a unified/common language.
- Increased choice for ODR service users: Users can send personalized search queries to receive customized offerings, including languages, services, and cost, from ODR service providers. This also enables multiple ODR service providers to cater to the diverse needs of individuals.
- Lower costs of doing business: End user platforms can focus on providing the best experience for their users, and provider platforms can focus on better services without having to worry about CAC.
- Non-linear innovation: ODR institutions can provide value-added services over and above their current offerings by connecting to other downstream networks.
- Secure and consent based data exchange: Currently, parties to a dispute are required to manually upload documents multiple times or parties to a dispute lose time when documents need to be transferred from one platform or place to another. This allows parties to a dispute to transfer documents as needed, when necessary. Privacy and data security is part of the Protocol design.
- Enhanced trust in transactions & User Experience: Parties to a dispute aren’t always able to track their disputes or keep a digital record of online transactions, particularly when a business or enterprise is handling 100s of disputes. The protocol enables trust in transactions, allows parties to track status & updates of a dispute, and prioritizes user experience in discovering a provider and initiating a dispute.
To address some of the above challenges, the ODR community has come together to design a unified protocol for unifiying the dispute resolution ecosystem and unlock the full potential of ODR. DRoP is an adaptation of Beckn Protocol that establishes a a framework to arrive at a community-owned data standard for ODR that aims to unify various online dispute resolution services by implementing an interoperable API specification. Implementing the ODR protocol will enable ecosystems/institutions seeking dispute resolution to easily discover and engage with multiple ODR service providers.
By virtue of a minimum viable standardized process/steps of communication, it eases the burden of multiple one-to-one integrations of ODR with ecosystems/institutions and also enables continuous sharing of status and updates to the respective ecosystem/institution as mutually decided.
This protocol will have multifold benefits across the spectrum of stakeholders. End-users will benefit from easy discovery and access to alternate dispute resolution mechanisms, end-to-end tracking, and increased visibility. ODR service providers will see an increased adoption of ODR as a method for dispute resolution. They will also be able to work with multiple ecosystems and platforms using the ODR protocol. Instead of managing multiple unique integrations, they can focus more on building their value-added services and meeting ecosystem standards, rather than on navigating unique integrations. Additionally, this process will also supplement the efforts by the court system to streamline dispute resolution process and improve the dispute resolution experience.
- Keerthana Medarametla, Agami
- Ravi Prakash, FIDE