Final accounts and without prejudice negotiations
The JCT standard forms of contract contain provisions for assessing final accounts stipulating timeframes for issuing and disputing final account assessments. Failure to comply with these timeframes can lead to potentially disastrous consequences. Where final accounts contain disputed sums, it is common to find that without prejudice (“WP”) discussions are held in parallel with the parties seeking to resolve their differences amicably. This article examines the potential pitfalls of this approach where one party is unaware of the potentially draconian...