All articles by Nick Henchie

  • Comment

    We all have good intentions

    2007-11-30T00:00:00Z

    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?

  • State your case
    Comment

    Worlds apart

    2007-01-05T00:00:00Z

    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

  • Nick Henchie
    Comment

    Home truths about builders

    2006-07-07T00:00:00Z

    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

  • Nick Henchie
    Comment

    A lesson in life

    2006-05-05T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Inadmissable evidence

    2006-01-13T00:00:00Z

    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

  • Comment

    Anti-partisan action

    2005-08-26T00:00:00Z

    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

  • Comment

    You do have a choice

    2005-05-20T00:00:00Z

    Nick Henchie offers a lawyer’s appraisal of the options for contractors wanting to avoid small claims litigation

  • Comment

    What the review missed

    2005-04-08T00:00:00Z

    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

    If …

    2005-01-07T00:00:00Z

    Now 2004 is behind us, let’s have some fun plotting how to kill off its more doubtful legal practices, and how to breathe life into a couple of neglected innovations

  • Comment

    Who can you trust?

    2004-11-19T00:00:00Z

    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 …

    2004-09-03T00:00:00Z

    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

    2004-05-28T00:00:00Z

    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

    2004-03-19T00:00:00Z

    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?

    2004-01-16T00:00:00Z

    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

    2003-10-24T00:00:00Z

    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

    2003-09-12T00:00:00Z

    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 …

    2003-08-01T00:00:00Z

    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

    2003-07-04T00:00:00Z

    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

    2003-06-06T00:00:00Z

    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

    2003-04-17T00:00:00Z

    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 …