Opinion – Page 647
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Comment
Cleverness isn't enough
Contracts may have become more sophisticated in the way they handle dispute resolution, but there's a basic problem they can't address. Only you can
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Fair-weather friends
Too many people's commitment to partnering is a politically correct veneer that cracks to reveal the old adversarial thinking as soon as the going gets tough
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Speak English!
Acronyms and abbreviations are part of life in the industry, but there are signs that communication is beginning to crumble under the sheer weight of jargon
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Comment
Shock of the new
Clients outside construction are starting to experiment with adjudication – once they have got over their initial scepticism
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Comment
Read the small print
When it comes to insurance policies, beware of the exclusions, limitations, ifs and buts. As the lawyers well know, interpretation is nine points of the law
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Comment
The dispute machine
So you think the Construction Act is reducing the number of disputes in the industry? Wrong. It has made going to court more popular than ever before
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Comment
Clobbered from the start
Design-and-build contractors be warned. There is a clause that can make you responsible for mistakes that happened before you even signed the contract
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Comment
The delivery boys
If Tony Blair is to fulfil his "instruction to deliver" he must tackle officialdom's failure to implement policy effectively – a source of much misery
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Comment
Was Heseltine right?
Regeneration Despite its efforts, the government is still failing to tackle urban deprivation. We look at why it's so hard to make a difference
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Comment
It's all in the timing
The Brompton hospital case turned on the definition of concurrent delays. But it asked more questions about extensions of time than it answered
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Comment
It's a long story …
This is the tale of a couple who bought an old house overlooking Beachy Head – and then found that the surveyor had sold them a pup …
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Comment
Triumph at court
Where a parent company pays for loss incurred by a subsidiary, the subsidiary can still be compensated – even though the parent was not a party to the contract
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Comment
Hold on to the Rottweiler
Going into a dispute with all guns blazing may make you feel better, but it's a lousy way of keeping business and may well cost you an arm and a leg
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Comment
What a shower!
The Tories' performance in the election was embarrassing, hopeless, abysmal – which isn't surprising when you look at the calibre of those in charge
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Comment
The can-carriers
A spate of rulings on project managers have disproved the adage that they are mere paper pushers. Their role is wide-ranging – and so are their liabilities
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Comment
We'll all be losers
The Construction Industry Board thinks each side should pay its own costs in adjudication. This is all wrong and could even result in more cases ending up in court
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Comment
More bilge from Europe?
When Thames Water did nothing to stop a home being flooded by sewage, the common law of England was found wanting. The Human Rights Act mopped up the mess
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Comment
Legal letters
There is a place for retentionSir: As a project manager with a local authority, dealing with work ranging in price from hundreds to millions of pounds, I feel I must comment on Rudi Klein's article attacking cash retentions (4 May, page 57). Although I agree with a lot of what ...
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Comment
Who's suing whom
Writs issued in the Technology and Construction CourtUnex Investment Properties vs Alfred McAlpine and various othersUnex Investment Properties of Setchworth, Cambridgeshire, is suing Alfred McAlpine Construction, Forum Architects, Hannah, Reed and Associates, Keith Francis Pitts and Margaret Siobhan Pitts for damages for breach of contract pursuant to deeds dated 2 ...
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Comment
Dogs in the manger
Everyone agrees that construction must abandon adversarial practices – except for QSs. Why are they so out of step with the rest of the industry?