DESPITE the legal industry’s oft-traditional image, it has been experimenting with technology for decades. The late 1980s saw the introduction of the Latent Damage Project – the world’s first commercial artificial intelligence (AI) system for lawyers – and the ’90s saw the advent of online dispute resolution (ODR) projects at US universities. But when Covid-19 forced cases to go online in 2020, that catapulted technology to the forefront of dispute resolution practices, driving home the point that the legal fraternity can and should embrace technology to cater to modern demands.

The need to keep up has never been more apparent. Entire new industries and practices are being created and disrupted by technology, with e-commerce and decentralised finance frontrunners among them. There are transactions and agreements that now exist only in cyberspace but are, in turn, vulnerable to the limitations of digital technologies. It is the duty of dispute resolution practitioners to achieve the best outcomes for their clients in the most efficient way possible, and in this age, active engagement and curiosity with incorporating technology into one’s workstream is fundamental to that goal.

Technology in modern dispute resolution