Court prepares for flood of Olympics disputes

Mr Justice Jackson, speaking at the implementation of reforms to the TCC’s procedures on Monday, said the Games would inevitably result in more cases.

He said: “The approach of the Olympic Games in London is bound to generate a huge amount of construction work and inevitably, and unfortunately, construction disputes, which will need resolution.”

The reforms are intended to speed up the passage of cases through the court, standardise best practice and reduce the cost to parties. Full details of the changes are included in a guide to the TCC, which can be downloaded from the court service’s website.

The reforms are an attempt to restore the court’s reputation after it was criticised for a lack of consistency, the low status of the circuit judges who try cases and a fall in the number of parties who use the court to resolve their disputes.

In June this year, Jackson brought in five senior High Court judges to hear the most serious of the TCC’s cases. On Monday he confirmed that he had appointed another High Court judge to assist the court, this time with an expertise in construction.

Vivian Ramsey, who will take his post at the start of next month, is the head of construction specialist Keating Chambers. Before working as a lawyer he was a civil engineer.

Jackson also said that he had set up an inquiry into whether TCC judges ought to act as mediators.

During the next 12 months he will also be conducting a review of the pre-action protocol, which has been criticised by some parties for incurring costs that they cannot recover.