What can the number of cases reaching judgment in the Technology Court tell you about the state of the UK construction industry? Well the bare facts are these, we are now half way through the year and the number of cases showing up on the semi-official BAILII website is half that of last year. So something dramatic appears to be happening.
The cause of this steep fall may well be the contentment with the state of adjudication and the lack of any realistic arguments on enforcement. However this fall coincides with the first few months of the new Construction Act’s operation, which includes substantial new and changed rules – so may be not.
Alternatively the very interesting EC Harris report “Global Construction Disputes 2012: Moving in the Right Direction” may hold the key.
As widely reported, UK construction disputes are increasingly expensive and complicated, mainly due to failures to administer contracts properly. Is this putting off participants litigating at all?
Prima Facie’s underlying ethos is that money invested in avoiding disputes is money well spent. The process of dispute resolution, in whatever form, is innately uncertain and full of major and sometimes existential risks to the enterprise that are near impossible to measure. Perhaps that is why the figures are down.