Thanks in part to the UK’s construction industry being so litigious, the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) has become an acknowledged world leader in the field of handling technical disputes. Information on how it goes about its work is sought by judges and others in many jurisdictions.
It has been a great success story and the TCC’s annual report for the period to 30 September last year, the last year in which its London business was carried out at the old court in St Dunstan’s House on Fetter Lane, reveals the scale of the work it undertakes. The court now has brand spanking new premises in the nearby Rolls Building, where the TCC, the Chancery Division and the Admiralty and Commercial Courts have all been brought together for the first time, creating what is said to be the world’s largest specialist centre for the resolution of financial, business and property litigation, and a centre of excellence for high value dispute resolution.
The Rolls Building has no fewer than 55 consultation rooms and 31 courts, including three super courts where the largest cases can be comfortably accommodated, All the latest IT facilities are on hand, including in court video conferencing, broadband etc. Doubtless construction will make use of the full range of these facilities in time, if the rate of growth in TCC business – confirmed in the annual report – is anything to go by.
During the year there were four High Court judges and two senior circuit judges sitting in the London TCC, with others in the regional centres, and growing workloads mean there will be another High Court judge appointed to the London TCC soon. The court can draw on a panel of High Court judges as required as well as deputy High Court judges and Recorders.
Th ey were a busy lot during the year when there were 512 new claims brought in the London TCC, compared to 502 claims in 2009 to 2010, 516 new cases in 2008–2009, 366 in 2007–2008, 407 in 2006– 2007, 392 in 2005–2006 and 364 in 2004–2005. There were 51 contested trials at the London TCC during the year; a number of other trials started but were settled before judgment.
A feature of the year, the report says, has been a substantial number of cases settled shortly, sometimes very shortly, before trial. Strong case management by the judges is said to account for at least some of the pre-trial settlements. Workload is still growing, however, as an increasing number of cases that requite technical input are coming before the TCC.
Th s doesn’t reflect the full extent of legal disputes between parties to construction contracts of course. The regional TCCs were busy with 105 cases in Manchester alone. Adjudication keeps many disputes away from the TCC – but not enough the judges have said, as jurisdictional and other mostly doomed challenges to adjudicators’ decisions persist.
Perhaps the surprising thing about the statistics is that the number of disputes isn’t as large as might have been expected at this stage in such a protracted and deep recession, which raises the question whether the industry is at last losing its appetite for litigation. If not then, as the report shows, there is an increasingly efficient court arena in which the determined can slug it out.
Nick Barrett
Editor