The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50831
TECH SUPPORT The drive to cut costs and use time more effectively could make videoconferencing more popular, particularly for mediations that cross borders. O mediationnline BY GERRY BLACKWELL mean less litigation and more mediation and arbitration? It seems likely. Could it also mean a heavier reliance on relatively new Internet-based conferencing services to reduce costs even further by bringing parties together online? ADR Chambers, the Toronto mediation services firm is betting it will. ADR Chambers partnered with a A U.S.-based web conferencing provider to develop eVideo Mediations, an online service that will make it possible for mediation sessions to include remote participants communicating over the Internet from their computers using IP videoconferencing and online document sharing and collaboration. The savings on travel costs and travel- related productivity losses could be sub- stantial, especially in international pro- ceedings. But it's early days yet. And it's by no means clear how well or even if the s the economic gloom spreads and deepens, everybody is looking for ways to reduce spending. Will that technology will work in actual proceed- ings. "We're ahead of the curve here," says ADR Chambers president Allan Stitt. "Not only is no one in Canada doing it, it's barely scratched the surface in the States." Ogilvy Renault LLP counsel Renée Thériault says traditional videoconfer- encing, using conferencing rooms and telecommunications lines, is occasion- ally used in the international arbitration work she does. "We haven't seen it that frequently," says Thériault, "but we're see- ing it more and more." She adds, howev- er, "In an ideal world, all of the witnesses would appear in person. It's much easier to evaluate their credibility that way." Can the new Internet-based technolo- gies and services overcome such fairly obvious concerns? Video arraignment using traditional videoconferencing has been used in some jurisdictions for a few years now to save the costs — and eliminate risks — of bringing prison- ers to court from a holding facility. And many law firms are experimenting with Internet-based services for client and internal meetings. In the larger business world, video- conferencing, long considered by skeptics a solution in search of a problem, finally appears to be entering the mainstream. Technology research firm Yankee Group reports in a January 2008 survey of 500 large enterprises in the U.S. and Asia/ Pacific, 90 per cent said they would deploy a video-based collaboration system dur- ing the next two years. These would mainly be network-based systems. Wainhouse Research, meanwhile, reported that vendors of traditional vid- eoconferencing equipment enjoyed a record year in 2007, with sales up 29 per cent and revenues up 40 per cent over 2006. Average annual growth rate for the previous six years: 10 per cent. Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of Yankee's enterprise research group, calls the confluence of business drivers push- ing videoconferencing a "perfect storm." The technology has improved, grown www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M AY 2009 23 CARL WIENS