News & Press
 New online justice system frees up court time
A new justice service that enables clients to simply send in their disputes, or cases, over the internet for judgement, could save the justice system millions of pounds a year whilst freeing up the courts and its personnel for more pressing criminal cases.
The service is called eCourt and it claims to make justice more accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford the best lawyers. Anyone with a dispute simply submits their Case Notes to www.ecourt.co.uk and their Assessors will return an impartial verdict on what they perceive to be a fair solution to the dispute based simply on the merits of the case.
The company claims that it is the quickest and most cost effective way for people to settle their disputes, as they are able to cut through all the red tape of the normally lengthy litigation process and without the need of having to go through the court system.
Christian Howgill, the founder of eCourt, believes that the company fills a huge gap in the market. “We felt that the normal litigation process was too long and too expensive for most people to be able to afford, and often the final verdicts were not delivering the kind of justice that they were expecting. But with eCourt, every case is judged solely on its merit and each verdict is given on what is perceived to be the fairest solution based on good, old fashioned, common sense."
Most of the Assessors, the people who make up the judge and jury, consists not only of professional arbitrators and accredited mediators, but also a cross-section of law abiding citizens, just like a normal jury system. eCourt sees this as one of its greatest assets, promoting the idea proudly on its website as, “democracy working in its purest form: Justice of the people, by the people, for the people.”
The company founders hope that people will use eCourt as a forum for obtaining a wide range of settlements, including settling arguments between neighbours; company and employee disputes; even helping on more sensitive issues like divorce settlements; Even people who can’t get the other party to agree to use eCourt, can still use the facility by making a single client application just to obtain an impartial, third party opinion. They can then use the eCourt Verdict to show the other feuding party an impartial viewpoint. The other party can then either agree to settle or send in their own side of the story to eCourt in order to achieve a more balanced verdict.
“We’re really just a dispute resolution service,” says Jeff Nyman, one of the co-founders, “We see ourselves like a cross between ACAS and the normal court system.” Although eCourt aims to take some of the strain away from the main judicial service, the company stresses that they do not pertain to be the law and have no intention of replacing the individuals right to legal redress. They say their new service merely offers a simple, impartial, and cost effective alternative.
There’s no doubt that one the main benefits of eCourt is the cost saving potential. One of their website’s examples details a case of two neighbours who went to court to settle a dispute that would have cost a few hundred pounds through eCourt, but decided to go to the High Court. They achieved exactly the same result, but it cost them almost £100,000 each, nearly bankrupting them both.
They also have an interesting “Verdict of the Week” page, where they deliver a hypothetical eCourt verdict on some topical issue of the day.
There are some neat promotional ideas as well, where they have taken the initials of the company ‘e’ and ‘c’ and used them as a simile for “easy”. For instance their main promotional tag line of: “FOR EVERY TOUGH DISPUTE, THERE’S AN EC SOLUTION” should serve them well in a mainstream advertising campaign. Or, for the those of you who prefer your ads to have a more intellectual flavour, there’s even a nod to Chekov with their: “DEALING WITH A CRISIS IS EC, IT’S THE DAY TO DAY LIVING THAT’S HARD”.
If you would like to see more of their innovative marketing campaigns, visit their eC SHOP which is full of fun promotional material that shows a lighter side to the company.
Contact Details:
Christian Howgill, founder of eCourt
Email: press@ecourt.co.uk
Back
|
