Online Dispute Resolution
A discrete procedural offering
Online Dispute Resolution at Lex Arbitrate is a fully digital arbitral or mediated procedure conducted on a secure institutional platform. Filings, evidence, hearings, and awards are exchanged and conducted online. The seat of arbitration may still be selected by the parties; the venue is virtual.
ODR is a procedural choice, not a downgrade. The same Rules apply, the same Panel is available, the same scrutiny is performed on the draft award. What changes is the medium of communication.
When ODR is the right medium
The institutional platform
- Encrypted document exchange — institutional case file, version-controlled, access-logged.
- Video hearing room — dedicated counsel, witness, and tribunal panes; recording at tribunal direction; verified attendance.
- Witness protocol — institutional invigilator present at the witness location for oral evidence; identity verification; isolation from prompts.
- Transcription — live real-time transcription of hearings, available to parties on request.
- Digital signature — final award digitally signed and certified; recognised as original.
- Fallback to physical — where ODR proves inadequate to fact-find, the tribunal may order an in-person evidentiary hearing on a discrete issue without abandoning the digital procedure for the balance.
Enforceability
An ODR award issued under the institutional Rules is an arbitral award within the meaning of the New York Convention 1958. Enforcement runs in over 170 contracting states without distinction as to whether the award was reached on paper, in person, or online. The institutional record of the procedure (filings, hearing recording, scrutiny minute) constitutes the audit trail that supports enforcement.