Browsing by Person "Gill, Chris"

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A Dispute System Design Perspective on the Future Development of Consumer Dispute Resolution
(Oxford University Press, 2016-12-01) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; Cortes, Pablo
This chapter explores the concept of dispute system design in the context of consumer dispute resolution (CDR). While there is a growing literature on dispute system design (DSD) in North America, practitioners and scholars in the UK and Europe have failed to give significant attention to DSD as a discrete activity. As the role of CDR within civil justice systems across Europe continues to grow, the activity of ‘designing justice’ in this area should increasingly be seen as a matter of constitutional as well as practical significance. A failure to address this issue risks undermining the continued legitimacy of state-sanctioned dispute resolution for consumer-to-business disputes. In this chapter, we present a new dispute design model for CDR mechanisms and, drawing on several case studies, demonstrate how it may be applied in practice.
Confusion, gaps, and overlaps: A consumer perspective on the UK's alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) landscape.
(Citizens Advice, 2017-04) Gill, Chris; Creutzfeldt, Naomi; Williams, Jane; O'Neill, Sarah; Vivian, Nial; Citizens Advice
This report is about the help available to consumers who have experienced a problem with a business that they have been unable to resolve on their own. Some of these problems end up in the small claims courts, but increasingly consumers can turn to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes. This report is about the UK's current approach to ADR. The report does 3 things. It provides an up-to-date map of ADR schemes available to consumers in the UK. It presents a detailed comparative assessment of a small selection of these schemes. And it sets out consumer insights drawn from interviews with consumers who have used ADR. The research presented in this report involved desk-based internet research, interviews with ADR schemes, and interviews with consumers. The report comes at a crucial time. There have been longstanding criticisms of ADR provision for consumers and there is wide consensus that the system is incoherent and confusing. The current government has an opportunity to address some of these criticisms in a forthcoming Consumer Green Paper. This is, therefore, an opportune time to be thinking about how to ensure that ADR meets consumers' needs and serves their interests.
Consumer vulnerability and complaint handling: Challenges, opportunities and dispute system design
(Wiley, 2017-06-30) Brennan, Carol; Sourdin, Tania; Williams, Jane; Burstyner, Naomi; Gill, Chris
Effectively designed complaint handling systems play a key role in enabling vulnerable consumers to complain and obtain redress. This article examines current research into consumer vulnerability, highlighting its multidimensional and expansive nature. Contemporary understandings of consumer vulnerability recognize that the interaction between a wide range of market and consumer characteristics can combine to place any individual at risk of vulnerability. While this broad definition of consumer vulnerability reflects the complex reality of consumers' experiences, it poses a key challenge for designers of complaint handling systems: how can they identify and respond to an issue which can potentially affect everyone? Drawing on current research and practice in the United Kingdom and Australia, the article analyses the impact of consumer vulnerability on third party dispute resolution schemes and considers the role these complaint handling organizations can play in supporting their complainants. Third party complaint handling organizations, including a range of Alternative Dispute Resolution services such as ombudsman organizations, can play a key role in increasing access to justice for vulnerable consumer groups and provide specific assistance for individual complainants during the process. It is an opportune time to review whether the needs of consumers at risk of vulnerability are being met within complaint processes and the extent to which third party complaint handlers support those who are most vulnerable to seek redress. Empowering vulnerable consumers to complain presents specific challenges. The article discusses the application of a new model of consumer dispute system design to show how complaint handling organizations can meet the needs of the most vulnerable consumers throughout the process. 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Defining Consumer Ombudsmen: A Report for Ombudsman Services
(Ombudsman Services, 2016-03-15) Gill, Chris; Hirst, Carolyn; Ombudsman Services
This report seeks to describe consumer ombudsmen as they have developed in the United Kingdom. The recent European Union Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution (2013/11/EU) defines consumer dispute resolution mechanisms in general, but does not distinguish between them individually. It does not, for instance, distinguish between consumer ombudsmen, arbitrators and adjudication schemes. Other existing approaches to definition, such as the Ombudsman Association's criteria for 'ombudsman membership', provide principles for ombudsmen in general, but do not distinguish between public ombudsmen and consumer ombudsmen. Our task in this report, therefore, has been to describe the distinguishing features of consumer ombudsmen. Our approach, rather than seeking to provide a definition, has been to describe the key characteristics of consumer ombudsmen through comparison with other forms of dispute resolution and to situate consumer ombudsmen within the broader consumer protection landscape. Our view is that the fundamentally hybrid nature of consumer ombudsmen, combined with broader developments in the ombudsman and consumer dispute resolution landscape, have led to a lack of clarity and confusion in relation to the nature of consumer ombudsmen.
Designing Consumer Redress: a Dispute System Design (DSD) Model for Consumer-to-Business Disputes
(The Society of Legal Scholars, 2016-04-26) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Hirst, Carolyn
This article proposes a model for designing consumer dispute resolution (CDR) mechanisms (including conciliation, adjudication, arbitration, and ombuds schemes). This field has expanded significantly in recent years, replacing courts as the primary forum of dispute resolution in some areas of consumer-to-business activity. This expansion has been ad hoc, with a lack of consistency in the design of CDR mechanisms and in the overall shape of the CDR landscape. In light of the recent implementation of the EU's Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution and Regulation on Consumer Online Dispute Resolution, Dispute System Design (DSD) requires urgent attention to ensure that the design of future mechanisms is based on coherent principles. A failure to address this issue risks undermining the legitimacy of state-sanctioned dispute resolution. The model described in this article proposes a systematic approach and aims to: synthesise existing DSD models; apply the concepts of DSD to the field of CDR; and provide a framework that may be of use in other disputing contexts.
Designing justice: Dispute system design and consumer redress
(Thomson Reuters, 2017) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; De La Rosa, Fernando E.
This chapter sets out a model to assist those involved in the design and review of consumer dispute systems and highlights how it can be applied in practice. The model does not dictate what final form the design should take but instead seeks to provide a framework for design choices in order that designers can ensure that a clear rationale exists for all aspects of a scheme's design. It is envisaged therefore that the model could be of use to designers in Spain and other jurisdictions in developing ADR systems to comply with the European Union's Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution (2013/11/EU) and Regulation on Consumer Online Dispute Resolution (EU No 524/2013). The chapter explains how the model works and draws on recent practice and examples primarily from the UK to illustrate some key issues relating to designing consumer dispute systems. The aim is to provide a practical guide to assist designers and those involved with the evaluation of dispute systems.
“It’s the most ethical job I have ever had”: Complaint handling and fair decision making in the financial industry
(Inderscience, 2021-10-29) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; McBurnie, Gavin
This exploratory study focuses on complaint handling in the financial industry to explore how complaint handling professionals interpret the requirement to treat customers fairly. Drawing on a small qualitative case study undertaken with a major UK financial institution, it is a novel attempt to integrate the literatures on ethical and fair decision making and apply them to the practice of complaint handling. Our contribution is to highlight: (1) the impact that institutional structures and processes play on the day to day practice of fair decision making; (2) how constructions of fairness vary between complaint handlers with some adopting an explicit ethical and moral focus; and (3) the active role group support and dialogue plays in supporting individual complaint handler’s fair decision making. Several practical implications arise from this in relation to how organisations can support fair decision making.
Models of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): A report for the Legal Ombudsman
(Legal Ombudsman, 2014-10-31) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Hirst, Carolyn
The aim of this research was to investigate what the Legal Ombudsman can learn from other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers. The research was commissioned by the Legal Ombudsman to help it review and develop its dispute resolution model and ensure it remains fit-for-purpose. The research involved a case study design and fieldwork was conducted with ten organisations: four in the UK, one in Ireland, two in New Zealand, one in Australia, one in Canada and one in the USA. The research highlighted a range of dispute resolution practices and illustrated some of the key design choices that ADR providers need to make when designing or reviewing a dispute resolution scheme. These fell within four areas: the use of online dispute resolution; the early stages of dispute resolution processes; mediation approaches; and the later stages of dispute resolution and building influence.
Participation as a framework for analysing consumers’ experiences of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
(Wiley, 2020-05-15) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; Creutzfeldt, Naomi; Vivian, Nial
This article argues that an analytic framework based on participation is useful for analysing consumer experiences of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) providing a complementary approach to analyses drawing on procedural justice theory. The argument is developed by applying McKeever’s “ladder of legal participation” (LLP)1 to a qualitative data set interviews with United Kingdom consumers. The article concludes that applying the LLP in the consumer ADR context results in novel empirical and theoretical insights. Empirically, it demonstrates that – despite low value and transactional disputes – consumers expect high levels of participation from ADR. Theoretically, it argues that the LLP supplements existing approaches by providing an unifying lens for studying consumer experiences by emphasizing the importance of participation, not only as a process value, but also in shaping outcomes highlighting the distinction between genuine and tokenistic provision of ADR.
The Evolving Role of the Ombudsman: A Conceptual and Constitutional Analysis of the Scottish Solution to Administrative Justice
(Sweet and Maxwell, 2014-10) Gill, Chris
In a recent Annual Report, Jim Martin, the current Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), referred to his office as a distinctly Scottish solution to administrative justice. This article analyses recent developments in Scotland with reference to various conceptual ombudsman models and different ways of understanding the constitutional position of the ombudsman institution. It describes how the institution has developed in Scotland, analyses the significance of these developments and, ultimately, considers whether the Scottish solution has lessons for the rest of the United Kingdom. At a time when significant changes have been proposed to the role of the UK Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO), this article offers a Scottish perspective on the evolving role of the ombudsman institution.
The future of ombudsman schemes: Drivers for change and strategic responses.
(Legal Ombudsman, 2013-07) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Legal Ombudsman
The Outcome of Complaints
(The Care Inspectorate, 2013-07) Simmon, Richard; Brennan, Carol; Gill, Chris; Hirst, Carolyn
The main focus of this project is the outcome and impact of complaint investigations on individual complainants in care services and on the services complained against. The aim is to ensure that people receive high quality care and to support and encourage the development of better ways of delivering care services. While there have been some studies of the process of investigating complaints, there has been little or no research of its impact on services. This project seeks to identify the difference a complaint investigation makes to outcomes for people using the service.
Towards therapeutic complaints resolution
(Hart, 2022-04-07) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; Hirst, Carolyn; Groves, Matthew; Stuhmcke, Anita