From Walt Disney’s Bambi:
“Drip drip drop, little April shower, what can compare with your beautiful sound?
Beautiful sound, beautiful sound, drip, drop, drip, drop.”
The spring blossom is falling like snow because of the showers and winds that many of us are experiencing at the moment. It may be good news for gardeners and farmers, even if it not enough to bring an end to the drought. Continue reading
I was looking back over the files from an old adjudication where I had represented the responding party. This case was interesting because it was one of those claims where the referring party’s lack of preparation reversed the usual (and true) maxim that adjudication favours the referring party.
A number of recent cases illustrate the exacting standard applied by the court to questions of competing-causes in fire claims.
Where, who and how
The most recent case is United Marine Aggregates Ltd v GM Welding & Engineering Ltd, which shows that working out where the fire started – or who started it – may not be enough. If you are to succeed in court, you also need to know how it started. Continue reading
To answer my own question, “Are dispute boards a viable means of resolving disputes in the UK?”, I’d say yes. Others may disagree, but I’ll explain why I think this.
Continuing on the theme of commenting on the drafting of the amendments made to Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (Construction Act 1996) by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (LDEDC Act 2009), this blog considers new section 111 of the Construction Act 1996. Specifically, it looks at how section 111 operates in the event of payee insolvency.
I realised the other day that it was a little over six months since the amendments to the Construction Act 1996 came into force. I don’t know about you, but it only feels like five minutes since we were reading about the amendments and how they were going to impact on construction contracts and those involved in the industry, not only on how the Act was changing, but also in terms of the impact on payment and the number of otherwise excluded parties who would now be able to use adjudication to resolve their disputes.
But has life really changed and, from my perspective, has life changed for adjudicators? Continue reading
According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the UK construction industry consists of over 300,000 firms employing over two million people and it contributed 8.3% of the nation’s GVA (Gross Value Added) in 2008. Given its undoubted importance, who is in charge of this important part of our economy? Do we even need somebody at the helm? Continue reading
Work to a privately owned residential property can range from a large, complex project to simple, cheap works. While the underlying issues are often similar to those on other construction projects, the forms of contract can be very different. Continue reading
Although much has been written about the proposed reforms to the civil litigation system, in many ways we remain slightly in the dark about how the changes, once implemented, will work in practice. In terms of how IT will assist in this, until the thirteenth lecture in LJ Jackson’s series of lectures aimed at explaining the reforms and the thinking behind them, we had heard little.
In my last blog I talked about Walter Lilly & Company Ltd v Giles Mackay and DMW Developments Ltd, where Akenhead J found that advice given by claims consultants does not attract legal professional or legal advice privilege.
That got me thinking about disclosure and privilege in adjudication proceedings. Disclosure requests are certainly something I’m seeing more and more of, so I thought it would be useful to set out my thoughts on the subject. Continue reading
