Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, announced some changes in the TCC, effective from today, in open court this morning.

Recognising the importance to the UK GDP of the construction and IT sectors and the complex and arduous disputes that can arise from within them, he announced the following interim arrangements pending future changes:

The High Court Judge in charge of the TCC (currently Jackson J) will be based principally in the TCC, rather than spending half his time on other cases. Currently the Judge in charge of the TCC is the only High Court Judge sitting in the London TCC, the other Judges being Senior Circuit Judges.

The Judge in charge of the TCC will consider each new case started in or transferred to the TCC and classify it either High Court judge (HCJ) or Circuit Court judge (SCJ). The most complex and heavy cases will be classified "HCJ".

Those cases classified HCJ will be tried either by the Judge in charge of the TCC or by another High Court Judge (from another division of the High Court). SCJ cases will be allocated to a named TCC Senior Circuit Judge alternatively allocated by operation of the TCC rota.

When proceedings are commenced or transferred to the London TCC, any party to those proceedings may make representations as to the appropriate classification.

These developments are to be welcomed, indicating as they do a recognition of the importance of the construction and IT industries and the need for effective management of litigation arising within them by judges of appropriate standing.

It is hoped that a decision will be made sooner rather than later about new accommodation for the TCC, which also reflects and recognises the importance of the court’s work.

A copy of the full text of Lord Woolf’s announcement may be found by clicking on or copying and pasting the following link:
http://www.law-now.com/media/pdfs/en/secured/tccstatementlcj.pdf

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 07/06/2005.