Canadian Lawyer

8 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m Q U E B E C MONTREAL-BASED LAB DESIGNS AWARD-WINNING ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION PLATFORM A world-class, Quebec- made online dispute resolution platform is earn- ing both accolades and attention from a growing number of administrative tribunals in Canada and beyond. In August, the Condo- minium Authority of Ontario won one of Canada's most prestigious public service prizes — a gold award for innovative management from the Institute of Public Admin- istration of Canada — for its implementation of what is believed to be the world's first fully functional ODR service for condo communities. The foundation of the service is PARLe, an open- source web platform that was designed and developed by the Université de Montréal's Cyberjustice Laboratory. "I think [the CAO's gold award] will help spread the word about PARLe," says Valentin Callipel, a Montreal lawyer and mission head of the UdeMtl lab. PARLe is one of several software solutions and other technological tools that are being developed by the eight- year-old lab's unique multi- disciplinary teams of academic researchers and legal profes- sionals. The lab notably customizes PARLe for use by administra- tive tribunals that handle high volumes of cases and informa- tion. "PARLe is designed to help quickly resolve disputes by laying out and defining cases by both sides," explains Calli- pel. "It is particularly good for small claims courts, landlord and tenant boards, labour law and social security. It is very efficient for civil disputes, including traffic tickets and tax issues." Versions of the program are currently being used by many courts and tribunals here and elsewhere, including Canada's Courts Administra- tion Service, Quebec's Con- sumer Protection Agency and France's Chambre nationale des huissiers de Justice. Callipel says the latest data from Quebec's Consumer Protection Agency shows that, of the 2,400 cases that have been opened since the agency started using the small claims PARLe platform in the fall of 2016, nearly 1,600 have been resolved, 70 per cent of them at the negotiation stage. "That is 12 times less expensive for government than the traditional way to resolve disputes and it is much faster," says Callipel. PARLe also earned praise from Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, which conducted a six-month pilot project in 2018 to evaluate the platform's ability to handle appeals and other requests online with the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario, which is part of the province's eight-court Social Justice Tribunal. "By working collaboratively, the ministry and Cyberjustice R E G I O N A L W R A P - U P Right-sized Thinking® • 1-800-323-3781 • pallettvalo.com Your Authority For: Business Law • Commercial Litigation • Commercial Real Estate Construction • Insolvency & Corporate Restructuring Employment & Labour • Wills, Estates & Trusts No Matter the Size or Type of Case, We Can Handle It From the complex to the simple; our range of expertise enables us to handle whatever size or type of legal issue you may have. We are committed to providing forward-thinking, flexible legal counsel while maintaining client service excellence. That's what we like to call Right-sized Thinking®. alletValo_CL_Feb_18.indd 1 2018-01-25 7:49 AM

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