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Idea of the Day: Using 'Virtual Litigation' to Spur Settlements

By Bruce Carton

Over at the Settle It Now blog, Victoria Pynchon offers some creative thinking based on an article she recently read about litigation filed over "virtual property" in Second Life. The property at issue is a "lush tropical island" that exists only in the world of virtual reality. An architect named David Denton purchased the island for $700 in real money and considers it to be his property. Pynchon says that since 90 percent of all litigation involving people (not corporations) will end with a retired judge telling these people that litigation is too expensive and a jury trial too uncertain for them to bear, why not just litigate virtually, "giving the parties the experience of litigation that will eventually drive them to settlement?" She writes that: I'm sure some smart programmer can come up with an algorithm for most personal disputes, including both factual templates and the application of simple legal principles. A "ticker" could keep track of the dollars your virtual attorney is billing on your law suit's screen everyday. Continuances, discovery motions, pre-trial proceedings and depositions could all be simulated. After having the will to litigate completely sucked out of them by this foray into virtual litigation, the...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).