Questões de Inglês

Can justice be served online?

Jayne R. Reardon

 

I recently had an experience with online dispute resolution. It all came about when I clicked on an alluring ad for a face cream. I charged $4.95 on my credit card and within a few days received the product in the mail. My enjoyment of the smooth and glowing effects of the face cream came to an abrupt end when the next month’s credit card bill came with a charge for an additional $94.99.

 

Via email, I disputed the charge, asked for documentation showing I ordered or received the product, disputed the documentation of a recurring monthly charge that the company put forward, and appealed the denial of my dispute. Ultimately, I lost. The credit card company refunded me a portion of the charge to keep me as a customer, but I had to pay for a product I had not ordered and which I definitely did not receive.

 

could have filed a case in small claims court. According to the National Center for State Courts 2015 report, 75 percent of the cases filed in the state courts involved judgments of less than $5,200. In some instances, the costs of even initiating the lawsuit or making an appearance as a defendant would exceed the value of the case. And contrary to the traditional paradigm of civil litigation being competently handled by attorneys representing both parties, 76 percent of the cases studied in the report had at least one party self-representing.

 

Trials have been dropping in numbers, and although traditional court filings and trials may be down, disputes are not. As the authors of Getting to Yes asserted over three decades ago, “conflict is a growth industry.” Conflicts inevitably come with the territory of new products and services. As with all things related to the internet, they are coming at a faster rate. Disputes are also arising from the increased complexity in relationships and systems being created and the larger volumes of data being collected, processed and communicated.

 

In 2012, eBay claimed it handled more than 60 million disputes between buyers and sellers by providing software that assisted the parties to negotiate a satisfactory outcome over 80 percent of the time. Alibaba, as of last year the world’s largest retailer, generating more revenue than Amazon.com and eBay combined, handles hundreds of millions of disputes per year.

 

That’s where technology enters the picture as a way to efficiently and equitably resolve disputes. The premise of the Digital Justice authors is that access to justice can be enabled by software and mouse clicks just as in the old days, it was affected by the hours a court was open or how distant it was located from one’s home. Experimentation in small claims online courts is happening in the United Kingdom, British Columbia, the Netherlands and spottily in the United States.

 

Online Dispute Resolution, proponents claim technology can also prevent disputes. What if, similar to a GPS system, parties could learn that the relationship was off track in time to correct course before they were lost or the claim was fully erupted? There is a branch of study in the ODR field called “dispute systems design” that challenges the assumption that we should focus on more efficient tools to address individual disputes on an ad hoc basis. This approach says that technology can be used to address and prevent disputes systematically.

 

By studying the data uncovered in the dispute resolution processes, eBay has managed to uncover common sources of problems and to structure information and services on its site so that the problems do not recur. Another example of an online ODR system is the one established on Wikipedia. Alongside its dispute resolution efforts, Wikipedia focuses on dispute prevention to study patterns of disputes and effective resolution strategies, and for automatically detecting such problems as illegitimate editing of content and deleting such content immediately, even before it is reported by the users.

 

The private nature of ODR makes it difficult to document results or study patterns. How can precedent be established? How do users have a feeling of fairness? While exploring new systems of making the law work for our citizens, lawyers and judges need to make sure the values of the third branch are brought forward.

 

Historically, the public trial in our society has been about not only resolving disputes between parties but also about education, healing and change. Trials can shine the light of justice on what otherwise may fester and grow in the dark recesses of our world. Courts allow the voices of the voiceless to be heard. The public nature of our court system has been emblematic of our democracy.But if the brick-andmortar system is unworkable for the disputes of the online age—we must adapt. This is the time to adapt or be rendered irrelevant.

AT:http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/can_justice_be_serve d_online/

In which of the sentences bellow does the underlined term NOT characterize an adverb:

Considere as sentenças a seguir:

 

I. Alibaba annually deals with hundreds of millions of disputes.

II. The number of traditional court filings and trials is increasing.

III. The author believes the legal system should adapt to the changes brought by technology.

IV. France has done some experimentation with online courts in small claims.

 

De acordo com o texto está(ão) correta(as):

Read the text and answer question.

 

[1]  An aeroplane was forced to circle for more than half an
hour after an air traffic controller dozed off. The pilot of the
cargo plane said he attempted a number of times to contact
the controller for permission to land – but got no answer.
[5]  He was forced to circle Nice Airport in France until
the sleepy controller was woken up by security officials more
than 30 minutes later. French air traffic control service
DGAC described the case as ‘extremely rare’ and said the
cargo plane ‘had never been in difficulty’.
[10]  An internal investigation has now been set up to discover
why the controller fell asleep on the job.
(Adapted from www.flightglobal.com)

GLOSSARY
dozed off – adormeceu

The verb “discover” (line 10), in the text, is closest in meaning to 

British astronaut Tim Peake pays tribute to David Bowie from the International Space Station

11TH JANUARY 2016
LUKE MORGAN BRITTON

 

 

British astronaut Tim Peake has tweeted his tribute to the late David Bowie all the way from the International Space Station. Peake, who has been in space since December, wrote on the social network following the news: “Saddened to hear David Bowie has lost his battle with cancer - his music was an inspiration to many”.

Many of Bowie’s songs focus on the subject of space, such as 1969 hit ‘Space Oddity’.‘Space Oddity’ was covered from space by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2013.
Speak ing at the time, Bowie cal led it “ the most poignant version of the song ever created.” “Goodbye Starman,” Hadfield tweeted fol lowing Bowie’s passing. That tweet is beneath. The news that Bowie has lost an 18-month battle with cancer was announced this morning with his son, film director Duncan Jones, among the first to share his message of love for his late father.
 

Twitter: “Saddened to hear David Bowie has lost his battle with cancer
– his music was an inspiration to many.”@DavidBowieReal
— Tim Peake (@astro_timpeake) January 11, 2016
 

Twitter: “Ashes to ashes, dust to stardust. Your brilliance inspired us all.
Goodbye Starman.” pic.twitter.com/FbcxlAzces
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 11, 2016

Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/david-bowie/90712#8WCKK1hRpy1uXsxF.99

The word poignant in the text is closest in meaning to

 

Strengths: Creative, passionate, generous, warm-hearted, cheerful, humorous

 

Weaknesses: Arrogant, stubborn, self-centered, lazy, inflexible

 

Leo likes: Theater, taking holidays, being admired, expensive things, bright colors, fun with friends

 

Leo dislikes: Being ignored, facing difficult reality, not being treated like a king or queen

 

People born under the sign of Leo are natural born leaders. They are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant and extremely difficult to resist, able to achieve anything they want to in any area of life they commit to. There is a specific strength to a Leo and their “king of the jungle” status. Leo often has many friends for they are generous and loyal. Selfconfident and attractive, this is a Sun sign capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause, and their healthy sense of humor makes collaboration with other people even easier.

According to the description above, Leos

The right way to complete the sentence Smudge’s mom is reading to him is