This is the first part of the third article in a series that will be concentrated on alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
Its goal is to make you, the reader, whether you are a consumer or a business, acquainted with the ADR as well as to show you the importance and potential of digital technologies when it comes to alternative dispute resolution.
This article is going to show you how different employees of the General Conciliation Body Germany use digital technologies in their everyday work. This will be done in form of interviews with people working in different positions.
This article is going to be divided into two parts because of its length and complexity. To start these interviews, we will first talk to Manuela.
Q: Can you please present yourself and explain your job at the General Conciliation Body Germany?
My name is Manuela and I work in the back office of the General Conciliation Body Germany. Together with my colleague, I answer the questions of the consumers (be it by phone, email, or letter). Furthermore, we have the first look at the cases and work on them, until we have all the necessary information, so that they can be handled by the legal professionals. Some cases are even treated by us.
Q: How dependent is your job on digital technologies?
Very dependent. All letters and faxes are scanned and sent into the cases in our case treating system. Most questions arise by email and are answered by email. The same is true for the correspondence in the cases, we write e-mails to the consumers and the traders. We rarely contact them by letter.
Q: In your opinion, what are the positive and negative aspects of digital technologies when it comes to your everyday work?
Positive is that all the information can be found in the case treating system. You do not have to have all the papers at hand and can find all the information quite quickly. Furthermore, it is easy to work in the home office or mobile office, you always have all information of the case and you do not have to carry with you a lot of paper.
I do not see any negative aspects.
After the case is treated by the assistants, it is attributed to one of the 6 legal professionals. They will do all the necessary research to give a legal yet easy-to-understand proposition on how to resolve the issue. Our next conversation partner is going to be one of the legal professionals.
Q: Can you please present yourself and explain your job at the General Conciliation Body Germany?
My name is Ann-Katrin Zabel and I am a lawyer at the General Conciliation Body Germany.
My task is the legal processing of the conciliation applications. After a request has been forwarded by the office, I check the jurisdiction of the request. If the General Conciliation Body Germany is competent, I inform the company that the applicant has submitted a request and ask whether it wishes to participate in the procedure. The applicant is also informed of this. If the company wishes to participate, the dispute settlement procedure is carried out. This means that the consumer and the company first exchange views on the facts of the case. As soon as I have all the information about the case, I prepare the dispute resolution proposal. This consists of the facts of a case resulting from the parties’ statements and descriptions, as well as the legal assessment. Since we are impartial at General Conciliation Body Germany, I evaluate and examine the facts presented by the parties in a strictly legal manner for the legal solution. In the end, there is a law-based proposal that both parties can accept if they wish.
Q: How dependent is your job on digital technologies?
Consumers can submit a request for arbitration by post, but also by e-mail or via a web form. In all cases, the request is created in our processing system. For each case, all required case data, e.g. names and addresses of the parties, receipt of the application, processing status, etc. are entered into this system. Applications received by post are scanned and are thus also traceable in the system.
All messages we write to the parties are generated from this system. The messages and also the statements of the parties that they send us by e-mail are also immediately displayed in the processing system. During the conduct of the dispute resolution procedure, all relevant data, messages, and statements can be seen at a glance. This is advantageous and helpful for writing the conciliation proposal. This one is also scanned at the end and stored in the case management system, so that even after several years and months, one can still trace the case from beginning to end.
Since about 72% of the applications are received via the webform and about 20% via e-mail, and all documents and opinions relevant to the case are also received via e-mail, digital technologies are essential to our work.
Q: In your opinion, what are the positive and negative aspects of digital technologies when it comes to your everyday work?
Positive: Case processing is easier. All the documents of the case and the messages are immediately visible when submitted by form and e-mail. This means that the case can be processed more quickly. Overall, the processing becomes more effective and much more efficient.
This is also more beneficial for the consumers as we can reply to them and process the case in a short time.
Negative: If our online case tool or the internet breaks down from time to time, it can be difficult to process the case.
That’s it for this week’s article. Next week we will talk to Marcel as well as Andrea.
Aleksandra Dubovac – M2 Cyberjustice – Promotion 2021/2022
