judge.me
Check out www.Judge.me, a new Internet-based dispute resolution website, being touted as an equitable and affordable alternative to government courts.
Someone should post this on JDOasis as well.
Law School anyone?
Umm, this would be totally unenforceable internationally. Let's say you win a $1,500 dispute with an Indian who is in India. What if the loser says, "Well, that's cool, I'm still not paying you." Ok, well, now you're out $150 for the JudgeMe service and you have no affordable mechanism of enforcement. The ad says it's legally binding in a hundred or so countries? Sure, it's legally binding--maybe--if you are willing to seek out its enforcement, which could be just as costly as normal litigation. Have you ever tried to get something done in Greece? It'll take you years to get anything done there, and that's if you can bribe the right person.
I do think this could work domestically if both parties agree in their original contract to seek arbitration through this service. However, if there is no prior agreement then it would take costly litigation to enforce the service's decision, which puts you back to square one.
In sum, the only way this service makes sense is for small domestic contracts where the parties agree in the original language to seek arbitration through this service. I actually think that's a really neat idea.
From their FAQ section:
"6. Judicial review
If the losing party refuses to pay (which statistically happens in 4% of the arbitration cases), the prevailing party must go to court to have the [award recognized and enforced]. The losing party can also have the [award vacated] in very limited circumstances."
This is key. If in the real world 4% of people refuse to pay after an arbitrator's decision, then what is it online? Double that? Triple that? How about in an international case? 50%?
VTECH, you should send them a message and see what their response is.
Vtech,
Thank you for having a critical look at our arbitration service.
Let me quote two answers I gave in a recent "Ask me Anything" thread I hosted at Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/t7eil/i_am_the_anca…
Q1: What happens if someone doesn't abide by your rulings? A1: You will need to go to court to "recognize and enforce the award". So you pick a jurisdiction where the other party has assets, and ask the court to turn the arbitration award into a court judgment. (At this point it is as if you went to court to litigate and the judge ruled exactly like the arbitrator did.) To do this you will need to present to the judge a notarized Affidavit of Arbitration which you can order from us for $35.
Q2: Does this cost money? A2: Yes this costs money, how much depends on the jurisdiction. However, most judges will add the court costs to the amount to be paid by the losing party (or amount of property to be seized if losing party still ignores this). This is why - according to CIArb - in 96% of the arbitration awards the losing party pays up without further enforcement, knowing that things will only get worse failing to do so.
We communicate very clearly to the losing party the potential extra burden of non-compliance if needed. We are also building a network of practicing attorneys in jurisdiction worldwide to help with the enforcement, where possible via power of attorney signed online. Eventually we also plan to set aside profits in a fund earmarked for enforcing our arbitral awards, since it hurts our reputation if an award goes unenforced.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Peter-Jan Celis www.judge.me
Kind of a cool idea. I can see the value add, especially in light of judge me's response to this 'it'll have to go to court anyway' thing
So who decides on the solution? You mention "equity," but what guidelines decides what is equitable? Also, you do realize the ultimate goal of the justice system is efficiency, right?
The arbitrator decides is his arbitral award.
The arbitrator ultimately decides what is equitable.
We believe our arbitration process is highly efficient. If you mean efficiency in terms of the predictability of case law, we are working on introducing that in our system as well. Stay tuned.
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