EPISODE #3 – ADVOCATES AT WAR
GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
MEDIATION – #325
EPISODE #2 – ADVOCATES AT WAR
Episode 2 concluded;-
But there are occasions when a more forthright approach is required. Firmness, clarity and most important of all – a sense of power. You are the Boss. You have to be in control. Sometimes a light touch works and the advocates get the message. But advocates can go too far and that is when you – the Chair – have to be clear and uncomplicated. Sometimes a reference to yellow and red cards can do the trick. Just letting the advocates know – with a touch of humour – who is in charge.
Episode 3 commences;-
What you say depends on who you are. Your words are an expression of you and there is a danger in trying to copy the words of another Chair. Being the boss means that your approach sets the tone of the proceedings. Your words may well be different from another arbitrator and that is to be expected. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses. We have our own style, our own temperament, our own comfort zones; our own sense of formality and informality.
You can observe other Chairs; notice their style, their use of words; their succinctness and their elaboration; their speed off the mark and their tolerance of flannel and indulgence. There is much to view and you have to be alert, vigilant, conscientious and one hundred per cent aware. You cannot have any “off” periods when your mind switches to something at home or an incident on the train or an item in the News. Minds do wander but be firm with yourself and bring yourself back into the present. Sometimes a change in your posture or reaching for a glass of water or a glance back at the documents – all designed to break any tendency to wander. Even a slight cough will bring you back to the task in hand. Be professional; from start to finish; from first to last.
Be attentive to temperature and noise and air conditioning and central heating. Think about concentration levels, hot drinks and cold, seating arrangements and space and – of course – the clock. Without being officious or over-bearing do think about time. Is the hearing moving comfortably or are there time issues coming into play? Is the cross-examination of a witness excessive or oppressive? Is a witness being bullied or is he/she playing for time with one eye on the clock.
And the concentration levels of the Tribunal? They need to be high and maintained. But people are people. Some find focus easily and others will struggle. Some have durability and inner strength and others excel in flashes and struggle to maintain concentration. You as a Chair are not there to change people. They are what they are and have been appointed as worthy of Appeal Board membership. You, as Chair, have to work with what you have. There are plusses and minuses. There are strengths and weaknesses. Some are lively and compatible. Others are dull and separate. You as Chair have to know your colleagues and be shrewd enough to know how to get the best out of them. So do your homework. Give thought to each individual and the test for you? – is to provide the Board with the conditions which enable them to give their best. You are a Facilitator.
EPISIODE 4. HANDLING BOARD DIFFERENCES.
Episode
- AN ANXIOUS NEW ARBITRATOR
- AN ARBITRATOR STUMBLES
- ANGER MANAGEMENT
- ARBITRATION – FEES OF ARBITRATORS
- ARBITRATOR/MEDIATOR
- ARBITRATORS FEES AGAIN
- AWKWARD QUESTIONS
- BACK TO BASICS – A MATRIMONIAL MEDIATION
- DETERMINED NEUTRALITY
- DISCRETION
- DISPUTE RESOLUTION
- FAMILY TENSIONS
- FATHER’S LATE WILL
- FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS
- GENDER ISSUES AT SCHOOL
- HOUSING AFGHANISTAN REFUGEES
- LATE APPLICATION TO SUBMIT NEW EVIDENCE
- LENGTHY ORAL SUBMISSIONS
- MEDIATION - ANGER MANAGEMENT
- MEDIATION – DENTISTS DISAGREE
- NEIGHBOUR DISPUTES + SECOND HOMES
- NEW WORLD – NEW WORDS
- POST HEARING EVALUATION
- THE ARBITRATOR BECOMES A MEDIATOR
- THE BACKGROUND
- THE BIGGEST SOURCE OF MEDIATION
- THE CORE QUALITY
- THE DOMINATING SOLICITOR
- THE EXPERT WITNESS
- THE FAMILY PROPERTY DISPUTE
- THE FLEXIBILITY OF MEDIATION
- THE MEDIATORS’ SKILLS
- THE OVER-ACTIVE PARTY LAWYER
- THE STORY SO FAR
- TO INTERVENE OR NOT TO INTERVENE
- TRADE ARBITRATORS + LAWYER ARBITRATORS
- UKRAINIAN REFUGEES
- WORDS MATTER
- WRITERS’ BLOCK
Graham Perry On Dispute Resolution
This website serves a number of purposes.
First, it enables me to bring my skills and experience to a wider audience. I remain active as an arbitrator, a mediator, a party advacate and this website tells you about me.
Second, it fulfils a long-held desire to promote a forum for discussion of dispute resolution issues. I have for 20 years been the Chair of the Arbitration Lunch Club together with the Hon Secretary, David Barnett. Pre-Covid we would meet three times a year for a Lunch sponsored by a City of London Law Firm and at the Lunches we would hold a discussion of two topical dispute resolution issues sometimes with the participation of Judges Woolf, Rix, Coleman and Sumption. Covid has triggered the Club to go Zoom-wide with participants drawn from around the world.
Third, there is a current need for a lively inter-active website that, on a daily basis, enables dispute resolvers from around the world to participate in discussion, debate, and disagreement on issues affecting the conduct and development of arbitration and mediation. Contributions can be academic as well as practical; studious as well as flippant; argumentative as well as collegiate.
Why not read my articles on dispute resolution.?
Should you need any advice or require my services contact me today!
Goals
My goal is to make the website lively and encouraging to arbitrators and mediators; to put restraint and self-consciousness to one side and play their part in making dispute resolution lively, informative and progressive. We are always moving forward. Elsewhere on this site, you will find a page which tells you how to become involved.
SOMETHING UNUSUAL
Here’s an interesting situation.
You are a party-appointed arbitrator in a Tribunal of 3. The parties are buying and selling soya beans. They have a falling out over the terms of a Trade Agreement.
Sellers sues Buyer. The dispute is commercial and relates to the minimum quantities in monthly shipments over a 12 month period. A normal commercial dispute.
But then fireworks and Buyers send strongly worded letters to public bodies alleging that Sellers have committed fraud. Sellers argue that they have been libelled and add a claim for damages for libel to the claim about minimum quantities.
Does the Tribunal have to address the libel claim? Two arguments;-
1. The arbitrators are commercial people appointed for their commercial knowledge. They know nothing about libel. They refuse to adjudge the libel claim.
2. They have to handle the libel claim. It is a dispute. The parties want the arbitrators to decide the claim. The arbitrators have no choice. Deal with it.
This issue went to the courts and the Commercial Court made a judgment. But let me throw this open for comment. How do you think the arbitrators should act. Let me hear from you and then I will let you know what the Court said.
Graham Perry.
A Family Mediation
You are a family mediator. You are approached jointly by a husband and wife for assistance in a matrimonial break up. There are two children of the marriage – a boy aged 12 and a girl aged 14. They are both represented by separate solicitors.
The mediation proceeds. A mediation agreement is signed. Letters are exchanged. Meetings take place. You become aware that there are personal issues between the parents concerning their relationship. They do not concern you as such because the divorce is proceeding and these personal issues do not impinge upon the issues in dispute which are to do with financial arrangements, holiday arrangements and involvement with schools. In due course, these matters are agreed and recorded in the Final Agreement which is signed by the husband, the wife and yourself. Your fee is paid.
Three years later your wife has passed away through illness and you are alone without children. In a social setting, you happen to meet up with the wife and a relationship commences. Out of the blue, you receive a letter from the former husband’s solicitors alleging non-disclosure by you of the relationship which, on their information, was current at the time of the mediation. Further, the letter refers to a lack of impartiality on your part and material non-disclosure of the relationship and indicates a claim for damages will follow.
What do you do?
About Me
Graham Perry qualified as a solicitor in 1973 after graduating from Churchill College, Cambridge where he studied History and Economics. He practised for nine years and then made a major career change to become Managing Director, of London Export, a UK company formed in 1953 to concentrate on trade and business with the Peoples’ Republic of China. Since 1990 Graham has been an international dispute resolver of commercial problems resolving commercial disputes.
Experienced Dispute Resolver
Commenced my career as a dispute resolver combining my legal skills and commercial experience. I am an active arbitrator and trade representative in London with the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA), the Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats (FOSFA), the London Metal Exchange (LME) and, occasionally, with the Sugar Association. I have a growing practice in shipping disputes and sit on the arbitration committee of the LME and FOSFA. I am a frequent lecturer and writer on commodity arbitration and mediation, giving lectures in China, India, Ivory Coast, Bhutan and the United Kingdom. I am an accredited CEDR mediator.