A small claims court in a suburb outside of Salt Lake City has rolled out an online dispute resolution pilot program, and a Utah State Courts spokesperson said there are plans to extend the online program to all small claims courts statewide. Lawyers working with the project say that online dispute resolution for small claims court in the United States shouldn't disrupt lawyers' practices, but instead provide better access to people who need to settle small dollar-amount disputes.

On Sept. 19, the West Valley City Justice Court in Utah unveiled an online dispute resolution (ODR) program for its small claims court. Participants file the small claims affidavit and summons and send it to the West Valley City Justice Court. Filers will be sent an email containing a registration link, and registration must be completed no more than seven days after filing the summons and affidavit.

A defendant has 14 days after receiving the affidavit to register at the Small Claims Dispute Resolution West Valley City Justice Court web portal to settle the case. If a defendant doesn't register within 14 days, judgment may be entered against them. If the defendant isn't able to access a computer or the internet, they'll be excused from ODR and will settle the matter in a courthouse. If both parties agree to use ODR as a facilitator, a neutral trained to resolve disputes, will help the parties reach a solution.

The program took roughly two years to come to fruition. Geoffrey Fattah, Utah State Courts spokesperson, said they received feedback from mediators, judges and others on the program prior to releasing it to the public. He said the Utah State Courts is set to make the ODR portal accessible for all of Utah's small claims courts by the end of fall or by early winter.

“We are always on the lookout that we can bring justice services to the people,” Fattah added.

Brent Burningham, chair of the Utah State Bar's solo, small firm and rural practice section, said in an email that he doesn't anticipate it will have much effect on most solo practitioners or small firms, due to differences between rules in Justice Court and district court. “Rules of civil procedure applicable to small claims brought in the Justice Court allow parties, even businesses, to represent themselves. Thus, parties use attorneys less frequently in Justice Court than in district court already.”

But the Kaysville, Utah-based attorney could forsee a possible disturbance in the legal industry.

“One group of attorneys that may be more impacted than others is those that engage in high-volume debt collection on accounts with balances below the district court's jurisdictional threshold for amounts in controversy.”

However, Burningham clarified that he hadn't used the pilot program and doesn't know if it'll reduce debt collectors' workload by allowing their typical clients to bypass using an attorney in the debt collection process.

In Utah, the maximum amount awarded in small claims court is $11,000, which excludes court costs and interest.

Grace Acosta, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Ohio College of Law, said ODR shouldn't be “alien” to lawyers. She said online-based resolutions for monetary claims aren't new and cited insurance companies as an industry that already uses web-based portals to resolve monetary disagreements.

She sees the Utah program as “equaling the playing field.” On the benefits of ODR, she explained, “You don't have to go to court, you don't have to leave work, you don't have to hire an attorney.”

To be sure, ODR has been used by others outside of Utah to help streamline small claims cases.  JAMS, the international arbitration and mediation company, has also zeroed in on online dispute resolution for “low to moderate value claims” by offering Endispute, a program where JAMS mediators are accessible online for a two-hour internet-based session for claims that don't surpass $100,000 for a flat fee of $500.

Modria is another online dispute resolution program that allows courts to provide “out-of-the-box resolution flows” for courts' debt, landlord/tenant and small claims matters, according to Modria's website.