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09 March 2007 / Tamar Halevy
Issue: 7263 / Categories: Features , Legal services , Procedure & practice
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Ask the expert

It’s worth spending time on expert determination clauses. Tamar Halevy explains why

Expert determination is an effective means of deciding narrow technical points of dispute that the parties to a contract want to resolve relatively cheaply and quickly. Because of the specialist nature of the points that are normally the subject of expert determination, parties generally feel comfortable assigning full responsibility for the decision to the impartial expert, whose decision will be final and binding on the parties.

The question is, what should an expert do if an issue arises within his task that is outside his field of expertise and that he does not feel capable of resolving? In Bruce v Carpenter & Others [2006] EWHC 3301, [2006] All ER (D) 405 (Nov), the High Court took the view that the expert was required to resolve the issue himself, even if it was outside the expert’s field of expertise.

Expert determination is a popular form of dispute resolution used to resolve primarily valuation or technical disputes that arise under particular types of

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
he abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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