The Utah State Courts will launch a pilot program tomorrow using online dispute resolution to seek to resolve small claims cases in the Justice Court in West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
This appears to be only the second court in the United States to offer ODR for all small-claims cases. A November 2017 survey by the National Center for State Courts found only three U.S. courts using ODR in any capacity. Just one of those three, the Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, Ohio, is using it for all small-claims cases. The other two are using it for review of traffic tickets or warrant issuances.
The ODR programs of the three courts cited by the NCSC all use an ODR platform, Matterhorn, from a company called Court Innovations. The company’s website lists a total of 36 U.S. courts (28 in Michigan) using its platform. Again, however, all but Franklin County appear to be using it only for limited purposes — mostly traffic, warrant or tax cases — not across all small-claims cases.
