Australian online dispute resolution platform, Immediation, has recently announced a new arrangement with the nation’s busiest tribunal, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The news comes less than two months after winning an arrangement with Australia’s top courts: The Federal Court of Australia, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court.
The agreement with VCAT – which finalises over 83,000 cases per year – will support the Planning and Environment Division’s recovery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through implementation of new digitised processes and the use of Immediation’s purpose-built video conferencing platform to host mediation and hearing sessions virtually online. Up to 1,000 matters are expected to be heard on the platform over the next three months.
According to the Founder and Managing Director of Immediation, Laura Keily, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven the uptake of technology, as businesses, courts and government bodies look to keep cases moving forward.
“The current global climate has required industries that have traditionally been slow to adopt technology to reassess their ways of working,” commented Keily.
VCAT CEO Mary Amiridis, commented, ”VCAT is pleased to work with Immediation and to implement the use of these new technologies to ensure Victorians continue to have access to justice during these challenging times.”
A corporate barrister with over two decades of top-tier legal experience, Keily believes that the impact of COVID-19 goes beyond the immediate future and that the adoption of platforms like Immediation is likely to continue long into the future.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been an educational period. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll see the normalisation of platforms like Immediation, as both the legal industry and the community at large realise the role technology can play in the delivery of justice. It’s a well overdue move that will benefit all,” Keily said.
Immediation’s online dispute resolution platform has been designed specifically with legal disputes in mind. The video conferencing functionality has the same capabilities of a face-to-face mediation conference, which includes separate virtual rooms allowing mediator and plaintiff to converse privately, as well as clear identification taggings on screen for clarity and transparency on who’s who.
