Adventures in moving

Having just moved from Toronto to Oregon, it was a very interesting series
of negotiations to get us there in one piece. Some of the most intriguing
negotiations involved the sale of our Toronto house and the purchase of our
Eugene house, in part because of the contrast in styles of our two agents.

In Eugene, we really required an agent’s help for a number of reasons, being
so unfamiliar with the Oregon procedures legally and practically, and to our
agent’s credit, he and his team went above and beyond the call of duty in
answering questions as varied as “how do we clarify lot line issues?” to
“Who can we get cable from?”

Traditionally around many North American jurisdictions, a house purchase
transaction involves almost no direct contact between buyer and seller, with
the agents doing most if not all of the talking. In our purchase of the
Eugene property, we were obliged to complete the purchase negotiations in
stages while in a different country, which made it even harder to have any
direct input. To the credit of our agent, Dave Koester, he encouraged us to
deliver an “offer letter” with our offer, explaining the background of our
offer and developing at least a paper relationship with the sellers. As
corny as it may sound, I believe it helped. We got a nice letter back from
the sellers with their counter-offer. When we replied with our response to
the counter-offer, it was a response that could easily have been seen as
harsh, in that we did not raise the dollar amount of our offer. By sending
a further letter explaining our response, we were able to minimize the
negative reaction and assumptions that might have resulted. Our explanation
focused on an explanation of the many objective criteria that had led to our
offer. It also identified our reluctance to leap upwards in price not as an
attempt to lowball them, but as a consequence of our very real fears that
the US housing market was going to continue going down, not up, and leave us
with a much less valuable asset.

The result was ultimately a price that everyone was comfortable with, and
I’m happy to say that we maintained a good relationship with the sellers
despite having only one brief chance to see them face to face due to the
circumstances of the purchase. When we moved in, we had a wonderful package
of background material, manuals, recommendations and other things (even a
listing of all the garden’s plants) waiting when we arrived in our new
house, including a bottle of their favourite wine. And I can happily say
that we are quite pleased with our new home ourselves.

Part of the reason for that satisfaction is the research we put into the
available housing in Eugene before we ever bought (and even after we
bought). Over the course of two months, we scanned the MLS regularly to get
a sense of what was available and what we liked. Eventually, before going to
Eugene to scout prospects on the ground, we did a concerted review of more
than 30 “hot prospects”, comparing notes and creating a spreadsheet
comparing all of the interests that we had in a house (things like a good
view, a nice low maintenance garden, interesting character, a location in
biking distance to the university, and various other desires). From that
list we were able to quickly and logically narrow the list to 14 really hot
prospects, which actually varied considerably in price and location, but all
had the potential to make us happy.

Our first trip to Eugene, we visited every one of those houses and a few
others suggested by our realtor. By the end of that trip we had a very
concrete idea of what would satisfy us, and by making it concrete, we were
able to flesh out our interests much more. My wife, for example, had been
very reluctant to buy or even look at a hillside house. When we visited
some, however, she was surprised to find how attracted she was by the
gorgeous views. In exploring why she was reluctant to get a hillside house,
it turned out there were two primary concerns. One was the risk of water
intrusion (a very real risk in the rainy hills of Eugene and one that our
agent echoed). Some of the houses had great views, but looked like they
might get a lot of runoff hitting them. Her second concern was that the
houses in the hills tended to be more than 4-5 km from the university and
too high up to bike back to. That echoed one of my concerns in that I wanted
to be close to a neighbourhood with shops and restaurants in easy reach for
a Sunday stroll.

By clarifying our interests, we were able to end up with a house on the top
of a hill in the center of town that had a great view of the Willamette
Valley and the hills of Eugene, and that had no serious risk of water
intrusion and (as verified by a home inspection) no history of water
leakage, all within 2 km of the university and just a few blocks from a wide
variety of funky shops and restaurants. By doing our research, we had the
confidence that we had received a great value home, at a very fair price,
that was going to make us both very happy, having met all of our key
interests.

As for the Toronto sale, more about that anon…

Paul Godin, Stitt Feld Handy Group

12 September 2008 | Ideas and Opinions | No Comments

Arbitration Course in Ethiopia

I just returned from another fascinating experience teaching in Ethiopia. While I’m not yet over the jet lag (I got back last Friday), I’m also not over the excitement. Ethiopia is a wonderful country with proud people. We have much to learn from them.

The course I taught was an introductory arbitration course. We were invited by our Ethiopian partner, the Ethiopian Arbitration and Conciliation Centre (EACC) to conduct the course. Participants did not pay a fee to attend, but did agree to conduct one free arbitration for the EACC in return for being able to take the course. The participants were both lawyers and non-lawyers (engineers, architects, business-people). While English is not their first language (it’s Amharic), they have had their University education in English so language was not a big issue.

The debates in the course were lively, the group was energetic and the participants’ questions were sophisticated and challenging. Issues such as whether three arbitrators are better than one become a lot more difficult when the discussion centered on which option reduces the likelihood of the arbitrators accepting bribes (the group consensus was that three arbitrators is better because it’s harder to bribe three arbitrators than one).

My teaching colleague (David Haigh) and I conducted mock arbitrations where we left it to the group to analyze the evidence, apply the law, reach a decision and write reasons. The participants took their tasks very seriously and wrote well-reasoned decisions.

I had the good fortune to visit an orphanage and some schools for underprivileged children. We really enjoyed our time with the children who certainly seemed to enjoy our company (and the gifts we brought).

 
My wife, daughter and I were invited to the house of Dr. Rick Hodes for a wonderful Friday night dinner. Rick is an American-trained doctor who lives in Ethiopia, helping those who most need his help at the Mother Teresa Mission (among other things). He has adopted a number of the children he’s saved and pays for many of the children to go to school. The night we were there, there were about 20 kids at his house for dinner.

The Ethiopian people are extremely kind, considerate, helpful and friendly. They wanted to make sure that we enjoyed our trip, had good food to eat and learned about their culture. I look forward to going back.

16 July 2008 | News & Articles | No Comments

Online Dispute Resolution coming

First, I know you’re used to seeing this blog written by Nayla Mitha. I’m very pleased to let you know that Nayla’s engaged, will be getting married later this week and will be moving to Ottawa to be with her new husband, Roger Beaudry. I want to publicly wish Roger an Nayla all the best. Nayla will be moving on to other things in Ottawa and Roger will continue his excellent work with the Stitt Feld Handy Group.

Last week I attended an online dispute resolution (ODR) conference in Victoria BC. One thing that was clear coming out of the conference is that ODR is coming. I’m sure we’ll be resolving disputes very differently 10 years from now than we are now, making use of the new technology. For example, we saw how one California-based mediator uses webcams to hold mediations with people in different locations. He sees everyone on his computer screen (and they see him) and he does his joint session with everyone there. When he goes into caucus, he shuts out one side and talks to the other. I see this becoming a very common process sooner rather than later. It’s obviously a lot less expensive than video-conferencing. I’m trying to learn more about the technology and I suspect we’ll be using it before long.

We’re also hoping to launch our own online dispute resolution product by the end of the year. We’ll be launching Chambersettle, a double blind bidding system. When people have a dispute, they can go to Chambersettle to make offers to each other. Each side will not learn of the other’s offer but will only be told if they reach or don’t reach a deal. They’ll have three rounds to make offers. If they don’t reach a deal but come close, they’ll be told they’re close and encouraged to make one more offer. It’s not a perfect system, of course, and won’t resolve all disputes, but it will be another option for people trying to put disputes behind them.

We’re right in the middle of the technology revolution and it’s exciting. There were 150 people at the ODR conference from all over the world. I’ll keep you advised.

Allan Stitt

26 June 2008 | Ideas and Opinions | 1 Comment

Stitt Feld Handy Group teaches ADR to Ethiopian

By Helen Burnett
Law Times, April 21, 2008

Alternative dispute resolution is reportedly catching on in Ethiopia-and it has a Canadian connection. Toronto’s Stitt Feld Handy Group and the Ethiopian Arbitration and Conciliation Centre have recently become partners to run training sessions in the East African country. So far in 2008, two have already been complete.
In February, the Canadian group traveled to Ethiopia to run a course to train members of the ombudsman’s office there, followed in March by a session for a human rights group. In July, the group is returning to teach people how to be arbitrators.
The partnership between the EACC, an independent body established by a group of Ethiopian lawyers, and the Stitt Feld Handy Group began with the EACC wanting to do a course in ADR, says Allan Stitt, president of the Stitt Feld Handy Group and ADR Chambers. The EACC visited the Canadian embassy in Ethiopia, who had heard of the Stitt Feld Handy training, and contacted the group, who then went there to do a few courses for them.
Following these first few training sessions, the group brought the EACC’s executive director, Woubshet Ayele, to Toronto a year and a half ago to show him how they run things at ADR Chambers and to help him with the administration of the centre. A document was then drawn up; with the two groups agreeing that they would work together as joint-venture partners to try to bring ADR to Ethiopia.
The group has also run courses in Trinidad, Barbados, the Bahamas, the U.K., Australia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and around North America.
People from diverse occupations attend the courses, says Stitt, including lawyers, engineers, architects, construction people, women’s-rights advocates, social workers, family dispute resolution people, and union representatives. “A very wide-ranging people who are extremely keen and know that in other parts of the world there are new and different ways that people are finding dispute resolution processes that work, and they are extremely keen to become leading-edge and to lean what’s going on elsewhere,” he says.
“The groups that I’ve been involved in teaching there are the most respectful, most interesting, fun to be with, keen in the sense of wanting to learn, and enjoyable groups that I teach anywhere in the world,” he says.
While each course is different, says Stitt, the standard EACC course covers how to resolve conflict in an interest-based way, such as how to work with people, how to understand what they’re saying, and how to listen effectively. The general courses that Stitt Feld Handy Group runs for the EACC in negotiation and conflict resolution are usually two one-week sessions with two members of the Canadian group going over to lead the program. People who take the course want the skills for different reasons, says Stitt. “There are some people who are going into the smaller towns to help resolve disputes there and some people who are working in the construction industry right in Addis Ababa,” he says.
The courses are similar to those the group teaches in other countries as well, but Stitt notes that every country has cultural differences. For example, he notes that the challenges around domestic violence issues are “immense” in Ethiopia, and figuring out how to do family law ADR is quite different.
“You adapt what you’re doing to the situation, but the theories are basically the same,” he says. The group hears through the EACC that people are really taking the skills learned through the courses to heart and using them, and they are making a difference. “It’s starting to infiltrate the courts system, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. I mean that in a positive way,” he says. At the last course he attended, the country’s associate chief justice was there and spoke about how people are starting to use ADR skills to resolve disputes, and he certainly sees it as a “wave of the future” in Ethiopia. “It’s being used, I think, both in everyday life and as part of the formal litigation system. It’s really starting to take hold, starting to catch on,” he says.
“The good thing about being able to do the courses is that we get some advocates for the process who are starting to spread the word among people in Ethiopia.” The issue isn’t demand, in terms of people who want the skills, says Stitt, but an enormous challenge is that Ethiopia is the fourth poorest country in the world and many can’t afford to get training. “The only way that the training can happen is if we can get someone to basically, by and large, fund our experts to get there and stay there,” he says.
There is a local businessman in Ethiopia who is involved with the EACC and who funds the group’s accommodation when they are there, says Stitt, and there are various government programs that the centre is able to access to get funding for airfare. The Stitt Feld Handy Group donates its time. The EACC receives funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, as well as the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, as well as from Initiative Africa, the French Embassy (on a project basis), and recently from Japan’s embassy.
While the training continues, there may one day be other projects on the horizon for this partnership. Stitt says that his dream and the dream of the executive director of the EACC, a former lawyer, is to somehow figure out how to get the funding to establish a new law school in Ethiopia that teaches the rule of the law.

15 May 2008 | News & Articles | No Comments

The pitfalls of collective brainpower