ODR Overview and Introduction

• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Melissa A. Kucinski,Colin Rule
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12567

ODROVERVIEW ANDINTRODUCTION

Melissa A. Kucinski and Colin Rule

Welcome to this special issue of the Family Court Review focused on the use of technology in

resolving family disputes. When we were asked to take on this project, we initially thought it would

be a survey of recent developments that many family dispute resolution practitioners might f‌ind

interesting. Little did we know that a global pandemic would soon compel the majority of the world

to take shelter in their homes, prevented from interacting in person with others outside of their

immediate family. Suddenly, in the course of just a few weeks, every court administrator and family

mediator in the country was forced to take a crash course on computer-mediated-communication

and videoconferencing, because online interaction became the sole means of communication avail-

able. As Dr. Tom Clarke, Vice President, Research & Technology at the National Center for State

Courts, put it: “If‌ind it immensely ironic that the coronavirus crisis will do more for virtual courts

than decades of work by NCSC. I’m glad to see it come, even ifthis isnotthe way I would wish it

to happen.”

Fortunately good work has been ongoingin the f‌ield of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) for

more than 20 years, so we have a deep well of expertise to draw upon to determine the best path

forward. We were delighted to have the opportunity to collect and edit articles from some of the

leading academics, judges, and practitioners working along this new frontier. Our authors have con-

tributed excellent articles ona widevariety oftopicsrelatedtoonlinedisputeresolutionand family

cases:

Michael Coffee, an attorney with the U.S. government, contributed an article that provides

a survey of private international law instruments and projects that lays the foundation of

past and current work in the f‌ield of dispute resolution and ODR globally. Mike has been

at the forefront of the U.S. government’s work in private international law issues, including

heading delegations to such international organizations as the Hague Conference on Pri-

vate International Law and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

He is able to draw upon his work in this f‌ield to show a path towards discussing ODR in

the family context within the international community.

Laura Kistemaker wrote a greatarticle looking back on theexperience with the

Rechtwijzer and its evolution into Uitelkaar.nl. The Netherlands has been at the forefront

of innovation in the use of technology to resolve family disputes and Laura has been the

person driving much of that innovation though her work at the Hague Institute for Innova-

tions in Law and now at Justice42.com, so her perspective andobservations areincredibly

valuable.

Amy Schmitz and Leah Wing contributed a piece on ethical online dispute resolution for

family issues that discusses the value of ODRin the family context and highlights some

of the concepts and standards that need to be considered in designing and deploying fam-

ily ODR. Leah and Amy have led the development of ethical standards for ODR (Leah as

co-Director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-

Corresponding: melissa@mkfamilylawf‌irm.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 59 No. 2, April 2021 208–210, doi: 10.1111/fcre.12567

© 2021 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.