Taryn Auchecorne from Opus 2, a technology service provider for the legal disputes market, chaired an interesting panel discussion exploring the current challenges and opportunities of technology and its role in dispute resolution. The session was hosted in conjunction with Pinsent Masons and the International Dispute Resolution Centre, and considered some of the points highlighted in the report launched by Opus 2 on ‘'.
The panel discussed what drives the adoption of technology, how it can have a positive impact on dispute resolution, including from a climate perspective, and the future of technology.
Drivers for the adoption of technology—in many cases, clients are driving the pace of change due to the efficiencies and cost advantages of using technology, and the ability for parties to attend remotely from different locations. But the pandemic was a huge driver for change. Where physical space in a court room is an issue, a hybrid hearing is also a practical solution, permitting all the relevant parties to attend
The positive impact of technology—the obvious advantages of electronic bundles (no more voluminous paper bundles being copied and transported at last minute!) and the ability to attend hearings remotely without the need to travel were discussed. The panel also considered the improvement in compatibility of different systems, with parties in many cases being able to access technology using a web browser. In addition, with more people working from home following the pandemic, this has had an impact on the learning opportunities for junior lawyers, but technology can provide wider access for junior lawyers to attend remote hearings that would not previously have been possible due to physical space in court
The greener aspects of technology—with clients becoming more climate conscious and under scrutiny to do things in an environmentally friendly way, there is an expectation on legal services providers to support this. Air travel and the use of paper are the biggest contributors to climate concerns, especially in international disputes, so the use of technology for remote hearings and electronic bundles can make a big difference in this space. The panel referred to the initiative to reduce the environmental impact of international arbitrations being promoted by the
Equality of arms—the panel considered how technology can have an impact on the equality of arms in a dispute. While technology is a leveller in some respects, providing remote access to parties who cannot afford the costs associated with travel (flights, hotels etc), some parties will not have the resources for expensive platforms, or may have issues with connectivity. So while technology has brought us a long way, it hasn’t overcome all challenges
The future of technology—the reliability, affordability and quality of products will be key. The hope is that technology will continue to develop so that parties will place less reliance on having a hard copy bundle at a hearing ‘just in case’. The view of the panel was that progress will be slow towards fully virtual hearings, but hybrid hearings are here to stay. Progress in voice technology will be important, to ensure the accuracy of recording hearings and transcripts. The possibility of using virtual reality technology in the presentation of evidence was also discussed, for example to demonstrate alleged defects in a physical object. Overall, the panel considered that it will be interesting to see how technology will develop - might we even see holograms used for witness evidence in court, so that the judge can view the demeanour of the witness?!
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Melissa is a member of the LexisPSL Dispute Resolution team. She focuses on the law and practice of commercial litigation with a particular interest in the procedural aspects of starting and managing civil claims up to and including trial.
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