The new-age of Access to Justice!

The new-age of Access to Justice!

During this age of lockdown and restrictions on travel and physical gathering, many things which we had considered normal seems to be not anymore and we have started to view things through a different lens. This would be an appropriate time to reflect about human relationships, conflicts and justice and how we could deal with it.

With the pandemic effect looming large, the luxury of time and money may not be available to us, as it was before. Dispute resolution methods in the traditional way seems to be ineffective and non-efficacious. There can be no doubt that mediation can play a positive role in resolving disputes effectively, as any adjudicatory decision on a dispute may find its enforcement difficult during this period. But, the prospect of bringing everyone connected with a dispute along with their advisers or lawyers to one single place to redress the dispute seems difficult, not only because of logistical and travel restrictions, but also due to financial constraints.

Actually, this pandemic has revealed to us the importance of online or virtual like never before. The digital world was moving fast and into unfamiliar territory creating the necessity to change. But this time of difficulty has made us to adapt to that change quickly. As Eckhart Tolle has said, adversity is a wonderful opportunity because it forces you to go deeper. Our society is now actually going digital. It is only a matter of time until most of our systems, processes and activities go completely digital. We are approaching a new world order, which will function vastly different from what we know today. Today we need technology that work with us, that supports us to make minimal errors and improves the outcome, so as to make the lives of human better. AI (artificial-intelligence) and automation promise to be the biggest technological shift in our lifetime. AI is augmenting our capabilities, allowing us to do more, with better accuracy, in less time.

Peacegate – Opening the Gate to Harmony and Efficiency is Dispute Resolution

This would be the appropriate time for us to adapt to the technological revolution and shift our focus on online dispute resolution methods. Peacegate is a digital initiative of the Indian Institute of Arbitration & Mediation (IIAM), empowering people to resolve disputes through their smart phones.

It is a first of its kind attempt to bring in automation and AI and to make dispute resolution process by negotiation, mediation and arbitration available to people in their smart phones and helping mediators and arbitrators to do mediation and arbitration with automated and AI-assistance to make minimal errors and with high efficiency. The App has the options for Online Negotiation, Online Mediation, Mediation through Centre, Online Arbitration and Arbitration through Centre. The App is available on Play Store for android devices and on App Store for apple devices. The web version is available in www.peacegate.in.

The App guides the Mediator to conduct mediation as per the approved process of mediation and help the mediator to issue reports and certificates. The App will also function as a Record book to indicate the progress and stage of the mediation and can also work as a log book indicating the hours of mediation. The intricacies of law and procedure for domestic as well as international mediation are taken care by the AI assisted App itself. Just by a click in the App, the dispute is registered and all formalities are taken care of, including communications, scheduling and meeting. The Settlement agreement will also be generated by the App itself making sure that all mandatory legal requirements of a settlement agreement are satisfied, so that the human error is eliminated.

Another important feature of Peacegate App is providing the parties with an AI-assisted virtual guide called “Peegee”. When it comes to disputes, people are more often confused. It is not always the access to justice that matters in resolving a dispute. More than that, it is about access to information and support to help people with options and possibilities that can be used to resolve disputes. “Peegee” will help parties to analyse their dispute and identify the best possible mode of dispute resolution through AI. The Conflict Analysis Report is a system towards access to justice, where a person’s dispute is analysed, the criteria for effective dispute resolution is applied, and the appropriate match is made between the dispute and mode of dispute resolution and thereby suggesting the most suitable manner of resolving such disputes.

Let us open the new window for access to justice!