This month’s Ask the team considers what statutory rights, if any, a supplier (be that a professional consultant, a building contractor, sub-contractor or materials supplier) may have to improve their cashflow, if they agreed a long payment cycle that they now regret. Continue reading
I’m sure most people are familiar with the concept of temporary finality. Coulson J describes it as “the essence of the adjudication process”. He goes on to explain that it is one of the principal reasons why the courts endeavour to enforce adjudicators’ decisions, provided they have answered the right question (paragraph 3.100, Coulson on Construction Adjudication).
Have you ever been involved in negotiating a contract term that seemed eminently sensible, only to find that its application was rather more complex than initially supposed? Sometimes I feel that Parliamentary draftsmen must feel the same way, trying to draft legislation of general application against a backdrop of a huge existing body of law and varying commercial practices.
The amendments to the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, which are coming into force on 16 March 2013 under the Late Payment of Commercial Debt Regulations 2013, are a case in point. Continue reading
For those of you that haven’t read it yet, I would urge you to read the judgment in Westfields Construction Ltd v Clive Lewis. It was an application to enforce an adjudicator’s decision, and I assure you that the rest of Coulson J’s judgment lives up to the teaser in the opening paragraph:
“Although the sum claimed is just £17,393.91 plus interest, the application has been hotly contested. There are seven witness statements, including four from the defendant alone. In addition, and unique in my experience, the parties were permitted… to call oral evidence.” Continue reading
While lawyers were all brought up on the principle of “freedom to contract”, there appears to be a growing trend that the courts are prepared to take a more restrictive approach when it comes to construing the scope of an exclusion clause. The latest example of this can be found in the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Kudos Catering (UK) Ltd v Manchester Central Convention Complex Ltd.
I had the pleasure of sitting with Akenhead J on 22 February 2013 as part of the marshalling scheme run by the TCC, a scheme which I would thoroughly recommend.
The court heard the next round in the long-running dispute of Berry Piling Systems Limited v Sheer Projects Limited. This dispute has been through the process of adjudication, arbitration, and enforcement proceedings in the TCC, culminating in an application for committal for contempt against two of Berry’s directors.
My last blog on cost management was, I now appreciate, rather boldly titled “Cost management by the courts is here to stay”. I was writing in the context of the TCC but my thoughts were soon endorsed when the judiciary announced that the cost management regime would be applied to all multi-track cases in all courts save for the Commercial Court.
What a brilliant hymn this is (and I’m not even Welsh…). Even if you haven’t stepped inside a church for some time, you can’t have missed its inclusion in the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and the opening ceremony for last year’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
We could all do with some guidance at times, especially in the often uncertain world of adjudication. So who are our “great redeemers” when it comes to adjudication guidance? Continue reading
The Chinese year of the snake has just started. Hello to the year of the snake, goodbye to the year of the dragon. This got us thinking: perhaps it’s time to slay a construction law dragon.
There’s a common saying among lawyers and commentators that NEC contracts are rarely before the courts. We’re not sure that’s really true any more. Here’s a summary of our case:
John Steinbeck:
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
These words may seem apt this month, with its cold grey days. Snowdrops have appeared, which is a sure sign spring is on its way. While we wait for longer, warmer days, we also await the “big bang” of the Jackson reforms (on 1 April 2013). Continue reading