Legal issues and construction law

Setting up a business partnership? Don’t dispense with the formalities

2026-01-26T07:00:00+00:00By Barney Leaf

Barney Leaf explains how deadlock agreements can help all parties when business partners break up

Expert witnesses: what’s the price of a change of mind?

2026-01-15T07:00:00+00:00By Tony Bingham

When an expert witness changed his mind under cross-examination, should that have impacted the costs award?

How construction firms must get in line with new payroll rules

2026-01-12T07:00:00+00:00By Dan Eley

What umbrella payroll legislation means for construction and why firms need to act now

Construction law at the turn of 2026: looking backwards and forwards

2026-01-09T06:00:00+00:00By Rupert Choat

Cases on defective premises dominated construction law in 2025, and 2026 is likely to follow suit

Misrepresentations on nomination form invalidate adjudication

2026-01-07T06:00:00+00:00By Victoria Evans and Nick Case

A recent TCC ruling serves as a useful reminder of sticking to facts and a simple opinion on suitability or otherwise on adjudicator nomination forms

Payment rigmaroles – it just shouldn’t be that complicated

2025-12-29T06:00:00+00:00By Tony Bingham

It’s that darned payment regime again! Even the courts are getting sick of it now and calling for common sense

All construction firms need an AI use policy – but how do you start?

2025-12-23T06:00:00+00:00By Iain Simmons

Iain Simmons sets out the minimum requirements for an effective AI use policy in the construction sector

Clauses designed to help avoid conflict in JCT construction contracts

2025-12-19T06:00:00+00:00By Peter Hibberd

How updated provisions in JCT 2024 are helping drive behavioural change in the industry towards conflict avoidance

Why a recent High Court ruling could lead to a rights of light reset

2025-12-09T07:00:00+00:00By Rashpal Soomal

Rashpal Soomal explains how a recent case has shifted the legal position on claims about rights of light

Let’s fix construction’s payment issues

2025-11-26T06:00:00+00:00By Rudi Klein

With the government’s consultation on poor payment practices now closed, what more needs to be done? Rudi Klein talks retentions, payment notices, adjudication costs and project bank accounts

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Simon Tolson to stand down as Fenwick Elliott senior partner

2024-06-13T09:52:00+01:00By Carl Brown

Prominent lawyer steps back after 23 years at the helm

Trio of partners appointed by construction law firm Fenwick Elliott

2023-09-11T10:39:00+01:00

Senior associates promoted in London and Dubai

SNC-Lavalin arm pleads guilty to Libya fraud

2019-12-20T06:00:00+00:00By Jordan Marshall

Subsidiary of Canadian firm which owns Atkins fined more than £160m

Number of High Court disputes jumps again

2019-12-06T06:00:00+00:00By Tom Lowe

Carillion collapse blamed as annual figure heads towards 400 mark

Camden council makes £130m High Court claim against tower block contractors

2019-12-02T06:00:00+00:00By Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd

Legal action centres on Chalcots Estate evacuation in June 2017

Willmott Dixon and Hackney row over defects on resi block

2019-09-04T05:00:00+01:00By Hamish Champ

Contractor’s housing arm Willmott Partnership Homes disputes ‘many’ of council’s claims

Second law firm begins action over Lendlease share fall

2019-08-13T05:00:00+01:00By Dave Rogers and Jordan Marshall

Price plunge triggered by woes at engineering business

HS2 faces crunch ruling on Old Oak Common start date

2019-07-18T05:00:00+01:00By Jordan Marshall

Railway will hear in September whether challenge by Bechtel will stop it awarding job to Balfour Beatty team

Heathrow beats challenge against third runway

2019-05-01T11:47:00+01:00By Jordan Marshall

Twenty-one of the 26 claims were deemed to be unarguable

HS2 procurement blunders have cost us £100m, Bechtel says

2019-04-25T05:00:00+01:00By Jordan Marshall1 comments

US giant goes to court after £1.1bn Old Oak station job awarded to Balfour Beatty team

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The coronavirus crisis: What does it all mean?

2020-03-18T06:00:00+00:00By Dave Rogers, Yolande Barnes and Simon Tolson

The implications of covid-19 for construction, housing and legal

Brexit and construction law: Changing times

2017-06-23T06:00:00+01:00By Al Watson, Jill Carey and Clare Harman-Clark

One year on from the EU referendum, nobody knows how a post-Brexit world will look

Interview: Richard Saxon

2016-08-04T06:00:00+01:00By Francis Ho

Richard Saxon, chair of the Joint Contracts Tribunal, speaks to Building legal columnist Francis Ho about new kinds of contracts, the competition, and where he thinks the industry is heading

Crossing the line

2015-08-28T07:00:00+01:00By Roxane McMeeken

With the Calais crisis still a hot media topic, the government is on the warpath against construction companies employing illegal workers. But is the sector doing enough to make sure it doesn’t get caught out?

Procurement on trial

2014-08-22T06:00:00+01:00By Joey Gardiner1 comments

Construction firms are increasingly emboldened to take the government to court over its procurement decisions, but who’s to blame?

Museum of Liverpool: Nightmare at the museum

2013-08-08T00:00:00+01:00By Joey Gardiner

The £72m Museum of Liverpool may have opened in 2011, but problems with the design and build mean parts of the iconic building are still inaccessible to the public. Last week’s £1.13m court judgment highlights the dangers for small consultants on big projects

Insurance special report: BIM

2012-10-26T00:00:00+01:00By Roxane McMeeken

The rise of collaboration software has created a lot of questions for insurers - not least how to divide up and assign blame if anything goes wrong

Costly legal disputes: Everyone's a loser

2012-06-15T00:00:00+01:00By Emily Wright

The amount spent on legal disputes has jumped by a third in the UK over the past year. Why are construction firms still so keen to spend on litigation?

Sparks fly: The row over electricians' wage agreements

2012-01-04T10:30:00+00:00By Iain Withers

The decision of seven major M&E contractors to break away from the 40-year-old JIB wage agreement was prompted by an ‘urgent need to modernise’ but has already led to angry clashes between workers and police. Building reports on a row that threatens to become the sector’s biggest industrial relations dispute ...

Hackney Empire vs Aviva Insurance: The Empire strikes back

2011-07-15T00:00:00+01:00By Iain Withers

This is the tale of a theatre project, backed by Lord Sugar, that landed its client with a £3.2m headache. Now eight years on there’s a legal battle over a bond between the insurer and the theatre owner

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