Our Dispute Resolution team is experienced in arbitrations governed by the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Chamber of Commerce in addition to those governed by the Arbitration Act 1996.
As an alternative to commercial litigation in the High Court, arbitration clauses are often included in commercial contracts, recording the parties' agreement to resolve disputes via arbitration.
We liaise with colleagues in our Corporate and Commercial teams at the drafting stage of these clauses, as well as implementing them, to ensure each clause meets the individual needs of our clients.
As in High Court litigation, we ensure a costs budget is prepared at the outset of the arbitration to enable our clients to plan ahead and to assess, at every stage, the cost/benefit position. This is increasingly critical as in our experience arbitrators are very open to making orders that recoverable costs be capped at a particular level.
Our experience
Recent cases have involved:
- acting for a leading support services company which provides infrastructure maintenance services to the UK's utility industries and local authorities. A supply issue with a sub-contractor threatened the client's relationship with its major customer. The sub-contractor was persuaded to settle following robust cross-examination of their witnesses prior to the arbitrator's decision
- acting for a European distributor of industrial air-conditioning units in an arbitration against a manufacturer, a Japanese based multi-national. The arbitration raised complex arguments of incorporation of industry terms and contractual issues relating to set off and counterclaims. We succeeded in obtaining a favourable award from the arbitrator regarding the extent of a no set-off agreement and the dispute was subsequently settled via negotiation
- acting successfully for a Northwest passenger transport executive in a substantial arbitration relating to the interpretation and effects of a private Act of Parliament, in connection with a compulsory purchase order. The arbitration involved complex questions of statutory interpretation, planning law and contract
- acting for the remaining two members of an accountancy LLP against a departed member in an arbitration involving issues of alleged invalid expulsion, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation and negligence
To speak with a solicitor in the Dispute Resolution team please click here or call us on 0800 840 4929.
