Mediation News

Bristol County Probation Officer Travels To Ethiopia To Conduct Training On Probation And Mediation

Bristol County Superior Court Probation Officer Lourenco "Larry" Lopes began 2005 in Ethiopia where he is conducting training on probation and mediation for attorneys in the East African country.

Lopes, a 10-year probation officer, is training 30 Ethiopian attorneys at the Ethiopian Arbitration Conciliation Centre (EACC) in Addis Ababa, one of two arbitration facilities in the country. The centre, formed by five lawyers with the help of the Canada International Development Agency, opened in August 2004.

During the five-day training, which begins today and runs through the 15th, Lopes will educate the attorneys about the concept of probation and give an overview of how the system works based on the Massachusetts Probation Service as a model. He will discuss the Massachusetts Probation Service’s origin as the very first probation department ever established. Lopes will also teach several seminars on mediation.

"The legal system in Ethiopia is in the beginning stages of setting up a probation system. This will be the first time that the group will be trained by Americans and learn about our legal system," Lopes said. "Because of the war with Eritrea, their whole system was affected. Now, they are rebuilding."

This is not Lopes' first trip abroad. Last year, he spent four months as an intern at the International Criminal Tribunal interviewing witnesses to the alleged war crimes of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Lopes was one of several recent graduates of the Southern New England School of Law selected to participate in an internship with the prosecutors of the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

While Lopes was in the Hague, he applied for and was accepted to the International Red Cross' annual course on Humanitarian Law which was offered in Warsaw, Poland. The 10-day course included topics such as genocide, international treaties, and rules of engagement for combatants and prisoners of war.

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	Did You Know?
	The mediation process may vary depending on the mediator. Generally, mediations commence with a general session with all parties, counsel and the mediator. At the general session, there will be a discussion of the case, the issues on appeal and other matters important to settlement. Then the mediator will meet separately with each party and their counsel in separate "caucuses." In these separate sessions, the mediator will seek to foster negotiations between the parties and develop agreement.