All articles by Ann Minogue 鈥� Page 4
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Features
Clash points
Everyone thinks there's still a place for nomination, but clients are deterred from doing it because it shovels a ludicrous amount of risk on to them. Time for contractors to shoulder a little more of the burden?
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Features
The battle of Brompton
Contractor meets client, contractor sues client, client sues rest of the team: a typical story of multimillion-pound multiparty litigation – and how difficult it is to sort out. This is how one judge is going about it.
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Features
Clash points
The dome client came unstuck when it tried to enforce a contract clause that required a bond and guarantee from a supplier. But clients only use such clauses because firms are so bad at producing documents on time.
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Features
The public sector's story
After a difficult start, the public sector has a good record of complying with competition law. Cases like Harmon are exceptional, and, in any case, European law is about to change.
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Features
Clash points
Of course responsibility and power go together, but the situation is not as simple as Jennie thinks – for one thing, novation is worse for clients than contractors, but intimately linked to single-point responsibility.
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Features
The third party way
For all the predictable griping, and the tendency of the producers of standard forms to deny its application, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Bill brings opportunities for all sectors of the industry.
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Comment
Clash points
The Woolf reforms have introduced a revolutionary change in legal culture. Has the subcontracting industry woken up to this, and is it ready to change its ways to cope with the new rules?
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Features
Clash points
JCT98 is guilty of aiding and abetting inefficiency. Take its extensions of time clause – the list of relevant events includes items that clearly should be the responsibility of the contractor.
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Features
The speed trap
Clients often assume they can demand that contractors finish by Christmas, variations or no variations. In fact, they can t, unless the contractor agrees and then the bill may be bigger than they anticipated.
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Features
Putting the record straight
Ann Minogue recently criticised construction s Neanderthal attitude to legal reform. She pointed to an editorial comment in a law letter that urged parties to exclude from industry contracts legislation protecting the rights of third parties. This is the editors response.
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Features
A victim of its own success?
Adjudication is establishing itself as an effective way to resolve disputes, which means that it can also be an effective way to bushwhack the opposition and the legal restraints on this look rather flimsy.
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Features
Clash points
Not so. Subcontractors should fight their own corner against unfair contract terms and not leave it up to clients, most of whom are, in any case, ill-equipped to help them.
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Features
Why can’t we help ourselves?
The Rights of Third Parties Bill is working its way through parliament. If applied, it will be hugely helpful to construction. Unfortunately, the industry s atavistic response has been to fight it tooth and nail.
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Features
Clash points
A recent report shows that clients are happier with the industry than they were in the mid-1990s. But this may merely reflects easier times, rather than better working practices.
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Features
Don't ignore the formalities
Failure to stick to the precise procedural requirements of termination clauses in commercial contracts can have dire legal consequences. What can you do to reduce the risk ?
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Features
Don't back a two-horse race
The public sector wants to defend itself against the preferred bidder on PFI projects, so it is proposing to play two bidders off against each other. This is not a good idea. But the public sector does have another remedy …
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Features
Clash points 1
If contractors can pass on their subcontractors' costs to the client, they probably will, won't they? Clients suspect this might be true, but fortunately Rudi can set their minds at rest
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Features
What do you do for a living?
The role of project manager is vital in ensuring the client gets the building it bargained for. But there is a curious lack of agreement about what they are actually supposed to do, and how much risk they bear.
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Comment
Law inaction
In the past a lot of disputes were allowed to grow because the parties particularly the clients' advisers were lazy. So, new adjudication should work because it brings time pressure to bear shouldn't it?
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