According to a study carried out in 2016 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“ OECD ”), it was estimated that 4 billion people around the world were living without access to justice, mainly due to lack of financial resources or due to finding themselves marginalized within society (homes far from urban centers, irregular migratory status, among others)
The situation described above worsened during the pandemic, considering that only 8% of judicial systems managed to adapt to the challenges of a world with reduced capacity and strict sanitary measures , further hindering the resolution of controversies typical of modern societies. . The gap in access to justice contrasts radically with access to the internet, which in OECD countries reaches levels above 80% of the population .
Faced with this situation, Richard Susskind has proposed in his book “Online Courts and The Future of Justice” that there are two ways to confront the problem and expand access to justice: the first, and more conservative, consists of increasing the financing of the different judicial systems, eliminating inefficiencies that may be detected in a trial. A second, more radical alternative consists of applying technology to the different links that make up the judicial process, so that, together with access, the major problems of justice can be addressed, the delay between the beginning of a case and its completion. term, the cost involved and the excess of rituals that make it unintelligible to the average citizen.
Although we might think that the solution proposed by Professor Susskind would be implemented exclusively in countries that are advanced in digitalisation, as could be the case of England, China, the United States and Australia, all analyzed in the cited book, we are pleasantly surprised by the incorporation of a online dispute resolution (“ODR”) system in Chile . The development was developed under the aegis of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce, and its objective is to resolve, free of charge, consumer complaints through an algorithm that seeks a meeting point between the complaints raised by users and the solutions they can propose. the 150 companies adhering to the initiative, with results of 75% of complaints resolved without associated costs, generating a decompression in the Local Police Courts, the body in charge of solving controversies related to Law 19,496, on Protection of Consumer Rights .
At Ontier we closely follow the innovations introduced in dispute resolution, in order to offer our clients the mechanisms that best suit their needs and are most efficient in their interests.
