- It's interesting that people view the situation as a binary choice: Either brick-and-mortar courts or digital courts. I can't understand why people don't look at it as a "why not both?" opportunity. Let the two types run side-by-side, and let the most appropriate types of disputes gravitate towards the most appropriate forum for each. More on this here: https://jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/the-end-of-courts.
I would say great minds… but you’ve given this much more thought than I have! I think digital courts are definitely a great thing, and, as you know, BC’s CRT is a great example of a successful evolution. Yet, courts aren’t simply a service, but I would hope, something nobler — the parallel to litigation financing and maintenance and champerty is interesting. As you and I recently discussed, much of this is now up in the air. On a lighter note, I enjoyed crafting that Zoltar / judge kiosk image, love the movie Big and thought this was a great excuse to bring the two notions together.
Two thoughts:
- It's interesting that people view the situation as a binary choice: Either brick-and-mortar courts or digital courts. I can't understand why people don't look at it as a "why not both?" opportunity. Let the two types run side-by-side, and let the most appropriate types of disputes gravitate towards the most appropriate forum for each. More on this here: https://jordanfurlong.substack.com/p/the-end-of-courts.
- It's hard to believe, but almost exactly *17 years ago*, I wrote a blog post very much along these lines, criticizing the then-novel development of litigation financing as an innovation that made things worse instead of better: https://www.law21.ca/2008/04/lawsuit-investment-and-the-limits-of-innovation/. I returned to the subject in 2016 (https://www.law21.ca/2016/09/the-ethics-of-innovation/) and again in 2019 (https://www.law21.ca/2019/02/the-implications-of-crowdsourced-justice/), but litigation financing is still with us and stronger than ever, which should help dispel any inclination on my part that I have much influence in this sector.
I would say great minds… but you’ve given this much more thought than I have! I think digital courts are definitely a great thing, and, as you know, BC’s CRT is a great example of a successful evolution. Yet, courts aren’t simply a service, but I would hope, something nobler — the parallel to litigation financing and maintenance and champerty is interesting. As you and I recently discussed, much of this is now up in the air. On a lighter note, I enjoyed crafting that Zoltar / judge kiosk image, love the movie Big and thought this was a great excuse to bring the two notions together.