Online Dispute Resolution Websites: bringing legal texts closer to ordinary citizens?

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), or out-of-court settlement, refers to dispute resolution processes and techniques, such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration, that fall outside traditional judicial processes. ADR is being increasingly conducted online. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) applies traditional alternative dispute resolution methods to disputes solved online by either relying upon technologies or through procedures taking place entirely online. The analysis of two websites providing ODR will try to highlight, from an intracultural perspective, to what extent the features of obscure and ambiguous legalese shade into plain English expressions and structures, pursuing clarity and understanding, thus producing texts closer to and more intelligible for the layperson. The linguistic study is conducted within the investigation of the websites’ general ‘architecture’ which uncovers how texts, images and symbols synergically convey both verbal and nonverbal communication, along with the several traditional and non-traditional information technology devices employed which relate the several codes to one another in the cyberspace, exploiting those conventions which are peculiar to both the genre of mediation and that of online/electronic texts.