MEDIATION POST#329 – SHOPLIFTING DILEMMA
GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
It’s a nice day. You walk to the shops. Take in a cup of green tea and a croissant at Starbucks. Then to WH Smith to see if you can buy the latest Grisham novel. As happens, you have some time to spare so you “pick and look”. It’s an enjoyable pastime.
You happen to notice a young lad acting strangely. He is looking left and right in a furtive way. You guess he is up to no good. You try not to seem investigative – it is not your shop after all but you have read recently of a surge in shoplifting and here you are in the middle of what appears to be just such an event.
What to do? Which way to turn? You don’t want to appear pompous and effect a citizen’s arrest – you might find yourself in an altercation even fisticuffs. But you don’t want to turn a blind eye and pretend nothing is happening. Something wrong is taking place and you are there. But how to handle?
It is one thing to watch the evening news and see evidence of shoplifting on a big scale whilst sitting in the comfort of your front room with a cup of tea in hand. But this is Here and Now. You are in the shop and this lad is shoving packets of earphones into his bulging pockets.
All rather clumsily in fact. Not very sophisticated. An amateur not a professional. But theft is theft. The victim is the store and eventually the public because store owners increase prices to compensate for their shoplifting losses.
It is all happening now – before your eyes. You see the ear phones being stuffed into every pocket. The sap is beginning to rise. You can’t let it happen – turn a blind eye “Its nothing to do with me”. At the same time you are not looking to intervene. You are not going to shout “Stop Thief” though that might prompt the lad to drop everything and make a run for it. Probably a good outcome. No prosecution – no confrontation – no theft just panic as the lad sprints off.
Your mind is racing and you recall the incident in Notting Hill when Hugh Grant catches a book thief pushing a book down the front of his trousers. Grant engages him in soft conversation which encourages the would-be thief to surrender the book and all ends without violence or vocal confrontation..
You decide to act. In a pleasant low key manner you involve the thief in conversation. “Do you know if this shop sells ear phones as my pair are unreliable and I need a replacement.” You then start to “jabber” – intentionally. “I go running and need ear phones to hear Classic FM. I am lost without my ear phones and can’t jog without my music. It’s a real pain but I have to find some new ones. The Doctor has told me to run three times a week so I have to find them. Any ideas where I might find them?”
The lad is troubled. He finds the approach pleasant and friendly and he is not the type – thankfully – to push you aside and run off. He is trapped. He knows where the earphone counter is but is aware that the counter is empty because the contents are in his front pockets.
The lad is flustered. He is destabilised. You sense the moment. And you grab it. You speak quietly to him – “put the earphones back. If you need a pair I will give you the money but don’t get yourself a criminal record and by the way do you support Arsenal or Tottenham?”
Both are local teams and the question usually gets a reaction. He says he supports Liverpool. It doesn’t matter. The topic is on the table, the focus shifts, the tension has eased. The moment has passed.
There is no fixed reaction. You can anticipate but you do not know how you will respond until reality confronts. And you can make the wrong decision, leading to noisy confrontation, pushing/shoving even fisticuffs. There is no hard and fast rule except to decide always to turn a blind eye and not get involved. But that often goes against the grain. You can’t let it pass. You decide to do something.
And it will happen to you – one day. It’s life. We do shop. There are shoplifters. We are human beings. We have a sense of right and wrong. Some will walk away and others will get involved. It depends on the moment. It depends on us. Correction – it depends on you.
MORE EVERYDAY EVENTS TO FOLLOW
GRAHAM PERRY
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.