In my November blog post, I thought there was a real risk that any deal reached during the Copenhagen climate conference would be a toothless tiger, with very few binding commitments to reducing CO2 emissions. Well, on reflection, even that pessimistic prediction was a little over-optimistic. The Copenhagen “accord” fails to provide any binding commitments to reducing emissions, other than “recognising” the scientific case for keeping global temperature rises to 2°C this century.
In December last year I was granted the unique opportunity to take part in an adjudication, which took place in 2014, sometime after the amendments to the Construction Act 1996 had come into force.
My expert witness, Gary Peters, relied on the “Fagin formula” for loss and expense, while the two main witnesses, Martin Potter and John Riches, traded equally incredible allegations concerning an alleged verbal agreement reached at the Builder’s Cleavage pub after a heavily disputed number of pints of beer. OK, it was only the Adjudication Society’s mock adjudication (organised by Hamish Lal and Emily Busby) and there was some exaggeration for dramatic effect. Continue reading
Time is money on any construction project and a well drafted pre-planning appointment could save you both.
At the start of a construction project, legal formalities are generally not a priority for the parties, who are more likely to be focused on pre-commencement practicalities, such as selecting the right project team, creating a concept design, preparing a planning application and so on. Continue reading
How good is your knowledge of construction law? Fancy rounding-off the year in style? Why not test your mettle with our Christmas quiz, but beware our yuletide-themed trick questions? Continue reading
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”
(Robert Byrne)
It’s nearly Christmas, so why not take another look at a fine old contractual chestnut: fitness for purpose. (This blog looked a different aspect of this issue before).
Fitness for purpose can get construction lawyers and their clients quite worked up, but why exactly? What is the real effect of including a fitness for purpose obligation? Will it be implied anyway? How does this affect insurance? Continue reading
What a perfect defence to a claim: being able to tell the claimant, sorry folks but you’ve got the wrong defendant! We novated the contract, so you need to go after the people that took over from us.
Claims for interest are particularly contentious at present as:
“Dear, dear. I shall be too late.”
(The White Rabbit, in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.)
Two weeks ago, I wrote about an interesting argument on the relationship between the “final date for payment” under a construction contract and a claim for statutory interest. This week, I look at delays in bringing a claim for statutory interest… Continue reading
The government has published six draft national policy statements (NPSs) for consultation. They are the latest step in a detailed consultation on energy and, in particular, nuclear energy aimed at taking policy to the year 2030.
If an employer fails to pay a contractor by the construction contract’s final date for payment, it should expect to be on the receiving end of a costly claim for statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
