Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 45 It's more than a nice-to-have option, Huberman suggests: "The Law Society of Upper Canada Rules of Professional Con- duct impose a duty on a lawyer to explore ADR as an option as appropriate in every case. A lawyer must discuss the ADR options with the client. It's not just a good thing to do, it's a must do." While B.C. is launching, Quebec has yet to commit, which Karim Benyekhlef finds ironic since he's been working on ODR platforms since 1996. He is the LexUM Research Chair on Legal Information, a law professor at the University of Mont- real, and director of the Cyberjustice Lab, which launched in 2010. By the launch of Cyberjustice, he and his team had already designed and launched an online mediation and arbi- tration platform in Europe and another domain dispute reso- lution platform for ICAAN, the Internet domain governance body. "We've been meeting with judges, lawyers, ministers, politicians, we've raised quite a bit of money, and we've got a sophisticated cyber-courtroom set up," he says. "We also have some computer scientists working on software." He says the objectives to ODR are twofold: one, social-legal, since the technology has to consider the impact on the partici- pants; the second being the techno-legal objective. "A court- room is like a theatre. You can't just install a single camera." They are currently working with the Quebec City Municipal Court to install a system in its courts but are still waiting for the province to green-light a small claims platform. The option to go the ADR-ODR route, however, should be a default one since it forces parties to make an attempt before they head to court, he says. "We've been talking to the gov- ernment of Ontario and we hope it will go through because Quebec has paid for all this ironically and we could launch in Ontario before we finally launch here," he says, adding the lab is also working with the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution at Osgoode Hall Law School. "It's a bit ridiculous considering the time and investment here for Quebec to be taking its time." Despite the proven ability of ODR in different forums, there's still pushback from governments, says Benyekhlef. Partly it may be because — as B.C. may soon discover — gov- ernments fear a pent-up demand for justice will overwhelm the platform or partly because the bench and the bar fear being marginalized. To counter this, he has worked with stakeholders and won support from Quebec's chief justice. "Access to justice is a problem everywhere, but many of the cases are trivial," he says. "People want a forum to express their anger. These are low-intensity disputes, but there are no forums and it's a waste of time and money to go to court." ODR provides a simple, cost-effective, and democratic pro- cess to resolve those disputes, he argues, freeing court dockets for more complex matters. "It's also a question of budgets for the department of justice where there is no money for innov- ation," says Benyekhlef. "We've done this all in open source, so our software is free. Modify it as you wish, but just share it with us so we can create a cyber-justice community and build together." Access to the best mediators and arbitrators practicing today— that's the power of difference ™ only JAMS delivers. Neutrals Like No Others Resolving Disputes Worldwide | www.jamsadr.com | 416.861.1084 JAMS Toronto | TD North Tower | 77 King St. West | Suite 2020 | Toronto, Ontario M5K 1A1 Ronald E. Dimock, Esq. Hon. Judith A. Snider (Ret.) D. Bruce Garrow, FCIArb Timothy N. Unwin, ICD.D. Hon. J. Edgar Sexton, Q.C. Hon. Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C. Gordon E. Kaiser, Esq. Our Toronto Resolution Centre provides a client-friendly environment, including spacious conference rooms, private meeting rooms and a top-notch administrative team for tackling cases of any type or size. For more information or to schedule a case, please contact Business Manager Bob Bhalla at 416.861.1084 or bbhalla@jamsadr.com. Untitled-6 1 2016-07-11 11:52 AM

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