Written by Doug Van Epps and Michelle Hilliker, this guide focuses on a variety of considerations that may assist courts when assessing how to design, implement, and evaluate an online dispute resolution (ODR) system. The considerations span a variety of topics including leadership and court staff; prospective users and stakeholders; goals; implementing authority and legal implications administration; platform attributes and functions; mediators; non-court dispute resolution service staff; costs, fees, and funding sources; confidentiality; protections; vendor selection; data collection and evaluation; and marketing plans. The guide includes handouts for each consideration that identifies subsets of each consideration and leaves room for courts to identify the item's importance and to take notes.
These items are all either issues encountered by the Michigan Supreme Court Office of Dispute Resolution when implementing their ODR program or lessons learned from their Office's discussions with court administrators, ADR professionals, case management system and ODR system vendors, legal assistance providers, judges, and staff of national judicial court administration organizations across the country. The guide also includes a list of recent ODR publications and resources.