Information Technology

Despite not being identified as a new breed of professional since the mid-1980’s, it is only now that we are seeing a significant rise in claims made against IT developers and suppliers and consequently calls upon their professional indemnity suppliers.

Notwithstanding the continued absence of any regulatory authority or code of conduct governing the working practises of IT professionals, the roles they play make them no less vulnerable to claims for malpractice than for other professionals with analogous responsibilities e.g., architects are akin to IT designers and programmers, construction project managers to IT managers and engineers to network solutions providers.

RCB has mediated and negotiated on a number of disputes within this sector:

  • Was the dominant cause of the company’s collapse the failure of the software to properly account and stock-take?
  • Were the defects in an accounting and work-orders system so flawed as to constitute a material breach of the contract?
  • Was the software house entitled to rely on its contractual limitation of liability clauses?
  • Could the client claim under the Sale of Goods legislation for the software it purchased?
  • Was the period taken for implementation and debugging a new system reasonable in the absence of an express contractual provision to time?
  • Should a warranty that a system is ‘bug free’ be taken literally?
  • Did the “supplier” of modified software act as supplier or as a professional consultant?

    • RCB has worked with Michael Taylor of 4 Pump Court to provide Insurers and company clients with an initial legal opinion of their position for a sliding scale, fixed fee depending on the value of the amount in dispute.

    Print page Printable Version