A recent judgment in Scotland confirms that Adjudication under an NEC contract is a precondition to referring the dispute to the tribunal.
A number of interesting legal points were made, along with reference to a few English cases dealing with similar point.
@stevencevans @Carolyn.Robins It’s astounding that this case needed to happen, it was based on such a novel argument that was constructed in the face of the blindingly obvious! Another triumph for clear drafting and a nail in the coffin for the dark art of lawyering. Most clients choose arbitration as it is conducted in private so why on earth they wanted to sidestep this in the first place is a mystery. We don’t know much about the background but the judgement states the tender was accepted in 2012 and from the internet it appears the Completion Date was around 2014, some 7 years ago and they’re not done yet as there’s likely to now be adjudication followed by arbitration. Whatever happened the contract clearly wasn’t managed well!
I agree - I don’t think it was ever going to succeed - but it was an interesting argument nonetheless. This just goes to show how one party to a dispute can frustrate the process.