Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, is a set of practices designed to resolve disputes between individuals as well as businesses without the need for litigation. Since it avoids the courtroom, ADR tends to be faster and cheaper than litigation, and also offers the benefit of confidentiality. There are numerous types of ADR, including mediation, negotiation, arbitration, conciliation, and neutral evaluation or fact finding.
Alternative Dispute Resolution continued to grow in popularity throughout the twentieth century, and many organizations began to advocate for it and offer ADR services to their disputing stakeholders. Today, alternative dispute resolution methods are employed across the globe by local, state, and federal courts, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profits.
As ADR has become increasingly popular, it has been applied to more and more types of disputes. Nowadays, the possible applications for alternative dispute resolution are essentially endless. As new technologies emerge and become ubiquitous, the applications for ADR expand accordingly.
Last month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Ho Chi Minh City, the APEC Economic Committee devoted an entire day to discussing ODR, or Online Dispute Resolution. By doing business online, a company opens themselves up to a relatively new kind of business dispute – one that can involve supply chains that wrap around the globe.
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