Effect of tiered dispute resolution provisions

Holloway and Holloway v Chancery Mead Ltd [2007] EWHC 2495 (TCC), a decision of Mr Justice Ramsey, raised complex questions of how a court is to respond when one party asserts a right to go to arbitration and the other pleads the existence of a dispute resolution process which must be fulfilled before an arbitrator can even be appointed. The learned judge concluded, unsurprisingly, that the existence or otherwise of a condition precedent to arbitration is a matter to be determined by the court and not an arbitrator. The judgment also contains a very helpful analysis of the authorities on the binding effect of tiered dispute resolution provisions.