2019 was a big year of change in the dispute resolution space — courts are going online, virtual judges are put to decide our claims, and crowdsourced justice systems increasingly impact our daily lives. These and many others together call traditional justice principles into questions. Technology tools are projected to intervene with the judicial system, and here are some top technology trends to watch for.

Virtual courtroom-virtual courtrooms are nothing new and will only become more common in the next few years. By connecting parties and decision-makers sitting in different geographical spaces, virtual courtrooms allow the level of interactions that are similar to real world courts and largely saves travel costs.

Robot judges — Algorithms are increasingly deciding our cases. Courts also rely more on predictive tools such as algorithms and data to further tailor disputes to parties’ needs prevent disputes from arising. One UK-based AI-driven chatbot has been used to overturn parking tickets in London and New York. In 2019, Estonia has launched a plan to introduce robot judges to decide on small claim cases.

Blockchain — Blockchain technologies have been used to secure and store digitalized evidence to make the online justice space more credible. In China, blockchain-based evidence was first accepted by a Chinese court in 2018, when parties preserved fats related to copyright infringement on the third-party platform in the form of blockchain. Although Chinese laws do not contain clear provisions regarding admissibility of blockchain-based evidence, the Hangzhou Internet Court nevertheless allowed its uses.

Smart Contract — Different from traditional contract, smart contract is essentially computer code. These contracts are spread across blockchain nodes distributed throughout the world. On October 30, 2019, Beijing Internet Court embedded a Smart Contract into a mediation case to permit automatic execution of a mediated settlement agreement. This process deeply integrated and utilized data available on chains and the judicial information system off chains.

Technology is said to rapidly change the face of justice in the next decade, if not sooner. Although these disruptive forces pose certain fairness and safety concerns, research efforts have been put into force to make them work better. We are confident to see big progress as more and more traditional courts move online.