Richard Bamforth
Richard is Head of the International Litigation Practice Group and a member of the International Arbitration Group at CMS.
Richard specialises in international commercial arbitration, commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution, with a focus on cross border disputes in the media, banking, finance, insolvency, energy and telecommunications sectors. He has represented clients in arbitrations conducted under all the major institutional rules (ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL) and other ad hoc arbitrations. He also sits as an arbitrator, appointed direct by parties and by the arbitral institutions, and is accredited as a mediator by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).
Richard is recommended for International Arbitration in Chambers & Partners 2015 (where he is described as having a 'full perspective on the arbitration space') and in Legal 500 2014.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Membership
- London Court of International Arbitration
- International Bar Association Arbitration Committee
- International Council for Commercial Arbitration ('ICCA')
- Arbitration Ireland
- Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration - arbitration panel member
2 Contributions by Richard Bamforth
PRACTICE NOTES
Arbitration Act 1996 s 57: correction, clarification and additional awards; procedure, deadlines and court extensions; LCIA parallels, section 68 challenges and 2025 Act time recalculation
Correction of an arbitral award under AA 1996
Once an award is delivered, parties and their solicitors should review it meticulously to identify any mistakes arising from an accidental slip or omission, or any ambiguity that ought to be clarified or removed. Naturally, they will also be looking for substantive errors that might ground a challenge or an appeal, but they must also ensure the tribunal is given the chance to address any error capable of correction under the ‘slip rule’ in section 57 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996). That rule operates as an exception to the position that the tribunal is functus officio once it has given its award—meaning it no longer has power or authority over the arbitration (eg H v W)...
Arbitration
PRACTICE NOTES
Provisional awards under the Arbitration Act 1996: interim relief, party consent, enforcement, institutional rules, key authorities and the 2025 Act’s s39A summary power (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
This Practice Note considers the availability of provisional awards under the Arbitration Act 1996 (AA 1996), pending the Arbitration Act 2025.
The Arbitration Act 2025 secured Royal Assent on 25 February 2025. For details of its commencement, see Practice Note: When will the Arbitration Act 2025 come into force?
A provisional award supplies, on an interim footing, a remedy that the arbitral tribunal could equally grant by a final award (AA 1996, s 39(1)). The tribunal does not possess an inherent power to issue a provisional award; such authority must be conferred by agreement of the parties (AA 1996, s 39(4)).
Provisional awards may include orders for:
the payment of money
the disposition of property between the parties
an interim payment on account of the costs of the arbitration
See also EGF v HVF, noting that the parties were free to confer on arbitrators the power to order, on a provisional basis, any relief they could grant in a final award, including a provisional order requiring payment of money between the parties...
Arbitration
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