Manifest Error – Preliminary Issue Determination
ADR Expert Determination
Preliminary issue determination, in suitable circumstances and in principle, can provide for a more procedurally efficient expert determination outcome. The result may lead to clarification of the remaining core issues between the parties, enabling them to prepare their cases accordingly saving time and costs.
Choosing this approach would be a matter for the parties and the appointed expert and depend on the subject circumstances. This includes the parties’ requirements, the significance to the dispute of the identified issue(s) if there is one and the expert’s agreed terms of reference. Examples of such arrangements include a preliminary stage in which:
- The parties address the issue in focussed submissions with the expert entitled to make enquiries and seek assistance from a specialist; or
- The parties put the issue to a court or arbitration tribunal for determination and on which the expert then relies in the expert determination procedure.
These comments are made in the light of recent Court of Appeal and High Court judgments (links below) in cases which include claims that the subject expert determinations were non-binding on the parties involved due to alleged manifest errors in the interpretation of the subject agreements (concession and SPA respectively).
Information about our ADR expert determination and arbitration services for business-related disputes can be found here.
Case references:
1] WH Holding v London Stadium
[2026] EWCA Civ 153
2] Nawaz-Khan & Others v UAP
[2026] EWHC 641 (Comm)
