The American Arbitration Association (AAA®) and its international division, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution® (AAA-ICDR®), today announced the acquisition of ODR.com Inc. and its parent company, Resourceful Internet Solutions Inc. (RIS), which owns Mediate.com and several other websites. This move bolsters the AAA-ICDR’s mission to expand innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options to benefit businesses, communities and practitioners worldwide.
“The American Arbitration Association, soon to celebrate its 100th anniversary, was founded to relieve overburdened courts by giving businesses a proven and effective alternative to resolving disputes. As technology, especially AI, is raising the bar for both quality and speed, our customers trust us to be the leader in helping them leverage these advances to achieve resolution efficiently,” said AAA President and CEO Bridget McCormack.
The immediate focus of the alliance will be expanding AAA’s mediation services by developing a suite of online dispute resolution (ODR) products. “Demand for ODR is growing rapidly worldwide, and working with the AAA will keep us on the cutting edge,” said RIS CEO Colin Rule. “Our shared goal is to make ADR an accessible choice for everyone, and this alliance will enable us to achieve that goal at an unprecedented level.”
McCormack noted that ODR.com, as the leading technology company in mediation and arbitration, has the software and experience to build ODR systems at any scale. “The RIS team is led by pioneers in technology and dispute resolution,” she said. “They have designed and launched the largest and most successful ODR systems globally, including those at eBay and PayPal, which have resolved hundreds of millions of disputes.”
ODR.com will remain a separate for-profit software-as-a-service (SaaS) company dedicated to providing cutting-edge technology and ethical artificial intelligence to the ADR community. “Together, we’re creating something greater than the sum of our parts. This alliance empowers us to dramatically expand our products and services to reach new and underserved markets globally,” McCormack said.
McCormack and Rule will record a live episode of the AAAi Podcast at the upcoming Future Lawyer USA conference on May 30 at the Boston office of Ropes & Gray, where they will discuss the AAA’s roadmap and the future of dispute resolution.