Principle Areas of Practice
Arbitration
Mr Parratt has been involved
in arbitration for the last 30 years, having attended his first
training course in 1976. His first appointment as arbitrator was
for a construction dispute in about 1979. In 1980 Mr Parratt was
appointed to the arbitration panel for the Association of British
Travel Agents and since then has conducted about 500 travel arbitrations
on documents only. Interspersed with these have been construction
disputes where the appointments have been made by the parties, the
court, RICS and various trade bodies such as the Building Employers
Confederation. Several appointments have also come from the RICS
under the terms of leases. In addition Mr Parratt has received several
appointments from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators arising
out of a special scheme for disputes between Chartered Surveyors
and their clients. In 1991 he was appointed to the panel of arbitrators
dealing with disputes under a special scheme for mining subsidence
claims against British Coal and has carried out more than 40 references.
Most of these have been under the householders' scheme with written
evidence supplemented by a view but several have been under the
general scheme which allows for a full attended hearing if necessary.
The largest of these involved a seven figure claim necessitating
the receipt of evidence from 17 witnesses during 19 days of hearing
and the issue of two interim awards on preliminary matters of law.
This was taken to appeal but leave to appeal was refused. Another
award against British Coal in the region of £500 000 was also
taken to appeal but the award was upheld. In addition to appointments
as arbitrator, Mr Parratt has also had several appointments as independent
expert where his decision is equally binding but based on the use
of his own expertise rather than his own evaluation of the evidence
of others.
As visiting lecturer in arbitration law at the Leeds
Metropolitan University, Mr Parratt is fully committed to keeping
up to date
with the developments in the law, particularly the new 1996 Arbitration
Act and more recent trends in rapid, cost-effective dispute resolution.
Keen to expand his experience of arbitration, Mr Parratt has also
obtained his Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration
and
was awarded the Course Director's Prize for the highest marks
in the written examination. This was in competition with lawyers
and
others from many different parts of the world. He is also on
the arbitration panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO)
Expert Witness
A large number of instructions
have been received from solicitors in connection with building
disputes. Many of these have
involved attendance at court
to give evidence of opinion. There have been many appointments
as Single Joint Expert Rights-to-Light
Mr Parratt is one of only
a limited number of persons with knowledge and experience in dealing
with right-to-light problems. Author of RICS paper The Law and Practice
of rights of light - Problems and Anomalies
Independent Expert
The Independent Expert is used to resolve mainly
technical and quality disputes where he uses his own expertise
to determine
the facts and
the liability rather than simply evaluating the evidence
of others.
His report is as binding as that of an arbitrator and several
instructions have been received from disputing parties.
Problem Solving in Building Matters
On many occasions instructions
have been taken from individuals with Building problems where
they just do not know the
cause and need
advice on how to proceed.
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