The Technology and Construction Court (TCC) – the specialist court in England and Wales, dealing primarily with litigation of disputes arising in the field of technology and construction has published its annual report. This years' report covers the caseload of the TCC from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019. The report shows:

  • A continued increase in caseload: 571 new claims were brought to the London TCC, representing a 33% increase from the previous year, when 428 new claims were registered. The year before fewer than 400 cases were filed: the caseload of the TCC is continuing to expand.
  • Appetite for settlement: the report shows that of 169 trials listed in the TCC, only 65 were eventually contested. This represents 62% of cases settling before proceeding to a final hearing, which is roughly the same as the Commercial Court reported the year before.
  • Eight months to trial: during 2018-2019, 77% of cases listed for trial were completed within only eight months from the issue of proceedings, evidence that the TCC can represent an effective and timely route to dispute resolution for companies acting in the technology space.
  • Construction cases continue to dominate: the chart below shows the split between types of dispute heard at the TCC. There were 16 cases described as "IT and computer" and "Technology", compared to 164 in the construction sector alone – perhaps a surprisingly small number given the number IT projects running in the UK at any one time and the number that could be described as troubled or distressed. This might suggest that parties to technology contracts are favouring other dispute resolution mechanisms, although the most recent LCIA Report showed that only 5% of disputes which were the subject of LCIA arbitration proceedings related to the technology and telecommunications sectors. This may suggest that other forms of ADR, including contractual adjudication procedures in large scale technology contracts, are being used by parties to those contracts as an alternative to formal proceedings.

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Read the full report.

Source

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