Nick Henchie
CommentWe all have good intentions
If a supplier makes a Horlicks of your building, you may find yourself asking a court for the money to put it right yourself. But will the court believe you’ll really do the work?
CommentWorlds apart
STATE YOUR CASE — Tony Bingham says arbitrators, judges and adjudicators do the same job, but the timescale of adjudication makes the process markedly different, argues Nick Henchie
CommentHome truths about builders
Getting home improvement projects completed on time and to budget is no mean feat – even when the client is a lawyer. The key is having the right contract
CommentA lesson in life
A lawyer's education is not complete until he has some work done on his house, whereupon he discovers that contracts matter less than a pint with the governor …
CommentInadmissable evidence
The answer to Tony Bingham’s ‘fuzzy edge disease’ is unambiguous contracts that do not rely on pre-contract transactions that will, rightly, be ruled inadmissable
CommentAnti-partisan action
Expert witnesses are meant to be objective, but too often they’re not. Now that judges have adopted a policy of naming and shaming, all that might change
CommentYou do have a choice
Nick Henchie offers a lawyer’s appraisal of the options for contractors wanting to avoid small claims litigation
- Comment
What the review missed
Concerns about the statutory payment and adjudication provisions in the Construction Act are well founded, but the review fails to deal with all of them head on
- Comment
Who can you trust?
lients ought to realise that lawyers and expert have their own reasons for attacking or defending a procurement route. No advice is completely objective
- Comment
When in Benghazi …
English may be becoming the lingua franca of international commerce but don’t make the mistake of thinking that construction law is the same everywhere
- Comment
Hackett's hatchet job
Three weeks ago, Jeremy Hackett wrote a piece suggesting that adjudication was in a state of crisis. This is not true. On the contrary, it is popular and working well
- Comment
Mediation is a busted flush
It has become received wisdom that mediation is always the best way to resolve a dispute. This is false, and it's getting falser – as some judges have realised
- Comment
What's in a handshake?
When a TV company started looking for a home for Fame Academy, it kept its options open with two potential agreements. If only it hadn't shook on one of them …
- Comment
Bye-bye, Bambi
The Be Collaborative contract is another adorable newborn legal fawn taking its first unsteady steps towards the combine harvester of the construction industry
- Comment
School ties
In adjudications involving non-payment, the outcome can depend on which school of thought your adjudicator belongs to. Finding out early on can save you a fortune
- Comment
Anything you say …
Judges want the parties to a quarrel to sort it out themselves. Here's how they've been getting this across to those who've had the temerity to bother the courts
- Comment
Fault lines
Blaming the construction manager has become a popular pastime of clients. They would be better off claiming against the real cause of their problems
- Comment
Protect your BITs
Companies considering accepting a job in a half-dodgy foreign country should have a bilateral investment treaty. What's one of those? Ah, what indeed...
- Comment
For a few dollars less
Stuffed by an adjudicator? Dry-gulched and embittered? Looking for justice? Well, help is at hand because fast-track arbitration has just ridden back into town …