In July, Michigan’s online dispute resolution (“ODR”) program MI-Resolve rapidly expanded across the state and is now live in all 83 Michigan counties. This expansion makes Michigan the first state to have ODR available for every citizen in the state. As I have previously reported, MI-Resolve operates on the Matterhorn platform and launched in August 2019. MI-Resolve utilizes ODR for small claims, general civil, landlord-tenant and neighborhood disputes.
In January 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court Administrators Office of Dispute Resolution released Considerations in Implementing Court ODR Systems. This guide, written by Doug Van Epps, Director of the Michigan Supreme Court’s Office of Dispute Resolution, and Michelle Hilliker, the Office’s Financial and Statistical Management Analyst, focuses on a variety of considerations that may assist courts when assessing how to design, implement and evaluate an ODR system. Courts seeking additional information on how to launch a court ODR program may also be interested in my interview with Van Epps and Hilliker, which discusses what MI-Resolve is, how long it took for the program to launch and the ins-and-outs of launching an ODR program.