Pravin Gandhi College of Law
Second Annual ODR Simulation
April 18th to 21st in 2022
Smartsettle collaborated with the Pravin Gandhi College of Law in Mumbai, India by giving their students access to the Smartsettle ONE platform during the Second Annual ODR Simulation in April of 2022. The objective was to give the students an opportunity to experience Online Dispute Resolution as if they were using the platform to settle a live case. The following hypothetical case was set up to model a real-life dispute involving two fictitious parties.
Brenda Buyer bought an antique car from Carla’s Classics on the condition that it would be in perfect working condition. The next day after it was delivered the transmission stopped working. These transmissions are very rare. The median value of three quotes to replace the transmission is $15,000. It’s not clear in this case who is responsible.
Dr. Suman Kalani supervised 58 students, who were assigned roles in this negotiation and paired randomly. Their task was to try to settle the dispute using Smartsettle ONE. Smartsettle ONE provides four pathways to agreement. A quick agreement can be reached by accepted the other party's visible bid. The most common path to agreement is to create an overlap using secret bids. If no overlap is created using the secret bids then parties can close a small gap using the Smartsettle's nudge technology, the Small Gap Closer.
Negotiators can be assured of a settlement if they agree to the intervention of Expert Neutrals in the case of a gap that is too large for the Small Gap Closer.
The results are summarized in the following table.
Method of Agreement | Negotiations | Agreements |
Visible Bids | 4 | 14% |
Secret Bids Overlap | 13 | 45% |
Small Gap Closer | 4 | 14% |
Expert Neutral Decider | 7 | 24% |
No Agreement | 1 | 3% |
TOTAL | 29 | 100% |
Of the 29 negotiations, 28 resulted in agreement. 14% settled by one party accepting the other party’s visible proposal. 59% settled with an overlap of the secret bids. 14% of those used the Small Gap Closer. Only 24% of the cases were settled using the Expert Neutral Decider (END). The following bar graph shows the same information, illustrating how each of Smartsettle ONE’s algorithms increased the total settlement rate, up to a maximum of 97% with the END.
