Procedural Justice in Alternative Dispute Resolution: Fairness Judgements among users of Financial Ombudsman Services in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article uses the lens of procedural justice theory to explore peoples' experiences of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) model: Ombudsman services, focussing on two services that deal with complaints about financial services in Germany and the UK. We ask two key questions: is the complaints process more important than its outcome; and does the importance of process and outcome vary between countries? In both countries we find a strong association between perceptions of fairness, confidence in the ombudsman service, and decisions acceptance. Against expectations, these associations are broadly invariant across the German and UK samples; but, despite this, all else equal German respondents expressed consistently more positive views. Our data add some nuance to the existing literature on procedural justice and suggest that the national context also plays a role. We suggest that national legal cultures provide for a framework of rules that guide people's perceptions and behaviours in legal, quasi-legal and related environments.