All articles by Tony Bingham 鈥� Page 15
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CommentPeople who care
A faulty load transfer platform caused a block of luxury flats to sink. The consulting engineer didn鈥檛 design the platform, but could it be liable for the problem?
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CommentI鈥檓 feeling a bit fuzzy
Fuzzy-edge disease鈥� 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 鈥�
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CommentCold comfort
This week鈥檚 energy special continues in the legal pages, and to kick us off we have a severe weather warning from 黑洞社区鈥檚 answer to Michael Fish
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Comment
On being naughty
Is this a cautionary tale of an innocent subcontractor hounded by the big bad tax man? Or was its 鈥榤inor and technical鈥� infraction actually something more?
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CommentA family affair
The man who defrauded the Millennium Dome of 拢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 鈥� in this case over the words 鈥榣oss and expense鈥�
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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鈥檛 change that 鈥� but you can make sure that you don鈥檛 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 鈥� 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
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CommentIt鈥檚 鈥� Robo-adjudicator!
Dispute resolution is no job for have-a-go amateurs. So five chartered bodies have teamed up to turn adjudicators into contract law enforcement machines
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CommentFractal law
As with the coastline of England or the Mandlebrot Set, the closer you look at standard forms of contract, the more complexity you find. Take this example 鈥�
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CommentA six-year stretch
By the time that Henry Boot vs Alstom reached the Court of Appeal, 拢60m was hanging on the definition of when the clock starts ticking on the six-year rule 鈥�
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CommentGo ask Alice
How can you miss a deadline if you鈥檙e a day early? Very easily, if you鈥檙e in the Wonderland world of the law, where words mean just what the contract says they do
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CommentWhose side are you on?
It鈥檚 taken 20 years to decide whether the project manager under the NEC contract has a duty to be unbiased. Now, thanks to Mr Justice Jackson, we know
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CommentAsking for it
If you lose an adjudication to an opponent in poor financial health, can you decline to pay up? Happily, the courts have just laid down clear rules on this
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CommentWriggle room
A developer tried three arguments to get round an adjudicator鈥檚 order to pay its contractor 拢170k. This is what the court said about them
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CommentThe big squeeze
When the Bechtel boss told his people to do everything they could to disallow contractors鈥� costs, the contractors went to court. But was this the right move?
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CommentIdeal for multiple injuries
It鈥檚 hard to introduce a new defence in the middle of a trial, but in adjudication 鈥� being a quick first-aid for two parties in a punch-up 鈥� it鈥檚 the very opposite