All articles by Tony Bingham – Page 15
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CommentWhat have you got?
Whether it's litigation, arbitration or adjudication, it would all run much more smoothly if everyone showed their hand right from the start
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CommentAn unlikely story
According to the JCT, certifiers are supposed to be impartial even though they're being paid by the client. So does anyone on Planet Earth believe that they are?
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CommentOne thing straight
When the DTI asked an industry mob to discuss the Construction Act, a fight quickly ensued - but those present showed great solidarity on another issue
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CommentNoises off
The adjudication meeting was action-packed and one party swears it never heard an argument presented by the other. Can the decision still stand?
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CommentThe clues are all there …
Under the DTI review, payers and payees call in the adjudicator if they can't agree how much is due. The referee must rule on the spat, but shouldn't play detective
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CommentA painful case
Sometimes contractors just get fed up with a job, and it grinds to a halt. When something like that happened to Birse, it got sacked. Then it got the bill …
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CommentYou’re mistaken, m’lud
In Carillion vs Devonport, the Court of Appeal was right to back an adjudicator’s decision to award interest, but in doing so it made some unhelpful comments …
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CommentPeople who care
A faulty load transfer platform caused a block of luxury flats to sink. The consulting engineer didn’t design the platform, but could it be liable for the problem?
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CommentI’m feeling a bit fuzzy
Fuzzy-edge disease’ strikes when a contract does not clearly allocate design responsibilities. Emcor Drake & Scull tried to inoculate itself, but it got caught out
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CommentBehind the veil
This is a murky tale of one man, three companies and a lot of fly-tipping. It also illustrates how the courts will look at who truly controls a company …
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CommentCold comfort
This week’s energy special continues in the legal pages, and to kick us off we have a severe weather warning from Building’s answer to Michael Fish
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On being naughty
Is this a cautionary tale of an innocent subcontractor hounded by the big bad tax man? Or was its ‘minor and technical’ infraction actually something more?
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CommentA family affair
The man who defrauded the Millennium Dome of £4m has just been sent down, but suspicions were first aroused in a little-known adjudication case back in 2001
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CommentWar of the words
A letter of intent is meant to be a stop-gap before the contract kicks in, but all too often it sparks a dispute – in this case over the words ‘loss and expense’
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CommentA happy compromise
A trial before a judge or arbitrator is one thing; negotiations facilitated by a mediator is a horse of a different colour. So what would happen if we crossed them?
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CommentAll too human
Arbitrators, adjudicators, even judges, all have unconscious bias. You can’t change that – but you can make sure that you don’t help them to direct it against you
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CommentOffensive manoeuvres
A decision reached by an adjudicator can be overturned in court, one reached by an arbitrator cannot – unless the claimant establishes that he is incompetent
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CommentA wardance
The ordinary way that contracts are entered into provides a natural breeding ground for disputes, as vividly demonstrated by this recent Appeal Court case