I thought this week that I would discuss when happens when a dispute gets out of hand. Disputes, by their very nature, can be very stressful for the parties. The outcome can affect the survival of businesses, whether people keep their jobs or even their houses. However, when crimes are involved, disputes take on a different dimension.
In May last year, I commented on the judgment in Henry v News Group Newspapers concerning one of the costs management pilot schemes.
This was a case where costs had risen substantially from the court-approved budget under the defamation costs management pilot scheme. The parties had reached a settlement, with the defendant agreeing to pay the claimant’s costs on the standard basis. The question for the Senior Costs Judge, Master Hurst, was whether there was a “good reason” to depart from the court-approved budget. He held that the provisions of the defamation pilot were mandatory and that the claimant had “largely ignored” them. He regarded the claimant’s failure to notify the defendant and the court of her rising costs as critical. Continue reading
I saw an interesting point tucked away in the middle of paragraph 10 of Akenhead J’s judgment in Arcadis v May and Baker. I will leave others to focus on the alleged breaches of the rules of natural justice (including that the adjudicator took a restrictive view of his own jurisdiction, went off on a frolic of his own, failed to consider a defence and exhibited apparent bias). I’m more interested in the parties’ choice of adjudicator the second time around.
Christina Rossetti, In the Bleak Midwinter:
“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.”
Christina’s words seem apt for the weather the country has experienced this month. While our thoughts may turn towards spring and warmer weather, we have had plenty to ponder during January. Continue reading
This month’s Ask the team considers the relevance of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) to offshore wind farms. Continue reading
Last week, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in R (Prudential plc and another). It may not have come as a surprise that the court held, by a majority of 5:2, to limit to members of the legal profession the right to claim legal advice privilege (LAP).
As a topic, adjudicators’ reasons have appeared on this page fairly regularly over the years, most often to do with one party alleging that there has been a breach of the rules of natural justice because the reasoning provided is inadequate. Conversely, we seldom see parties arguing before the court on enforcement that the adjudicator wrote too much, that his reasoning was too detailed and overly long.
However, when I was reading Ramsey J’s judgment in WSP v Dalkia, the thought struck me just how much of the judgment was actually obiter. Continue reading
Hardly a month goes by where I don’t have an English or Scottish judgment to consider on this blog, where one party is seeking to enforce an adjudicator’s decision, the other party is resisting, in its defence raising a jurisdictional challenge or arguing there has been some breach or other of the rules of natural justice. So it was in SW Global v Morris & Spottiswood, which was heard by Lord Hodge just before the new year.
A contractor whose progress and performance are unsatisfactory presents an employer with a number of options as to how to proceed. Whichever option the employer chooses, it will be wise to bear in mind the implications of that course of action for other interested parties, including a bondsman of the contractor’s obligations (as in the case of Aviva v Hackney Empire Ltd, decided by the Court of Appeal last month).
We all know (from bitter experience) that conferences and seminars can vary in quality. You can come away from some feeling exhausted by the breadth and depth of what you’ve learnt (for example, the recent TeCSA Adjudication conference was excellent), but others have left me wondering why I bothered making the effort to go (but I’m not naming and shaming!). However, even at the latter you can expect to learn something during tea or lunch breaks.
