All articles by Tony Bingham 鈥� Page 28
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Features
Housewives' choice
The JCT deserves a pat on the back for its new domestic works contract. It s eight pages long, easy to use and could save a lot of trouble when Mrs Bingham hires a contractor to build an extension.
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Features
Naughty contracts
It has come to our attention that there are certain firms attempting to evade the Construction Act. Mr Raynsford is very cross about all this, and if anyone is found guilty they’re in hot water …
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Comment
How to come a cropper
The Civil Procedure Rules make new demands on expert witnesses. Here's the story of one expert who didn't seem to appreciate that – and what Lord Woolf had to say about it.
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Features
Winner takes all (maybe)
Whose side are you on – the one that says the loser in an adjudication should pay the winner’s costs, or the other that says each party should pay their own costs, never mind who wins?
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Comment
Pet adjudicators
Tempting though it is to ensure that you get a tame adjudicator by writing their name into the contract document, you might be arming your opponent with a weapon of last resort.
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Features
Justice at the speed of light
The new payment rules are getting disputes worked out in only 28 days – none of that hanging around waiting for the other chap to go bust. But the courts can move even faster.
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Features
Tale of the expected
A recent case is worth looking at precisely because it is nothing unusual for construction, just a bog standard tale of things going pear-shaped on site – and in court.
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Features
Who's going to pay?
Does the Scheme for Construction Contracts give adjudicators the power to make one side pay the other's costs in an adjudication? The jury is still out.
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Features
Access all areas
New legislation requires service providers and owners of public buildings to make their premises easily accessible for disabled people. Great news for disabled people – and builders.
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Features
Who needs experts?
Lord Woolf believes that limiting the number of expert witnesses in construction disputes will reduce the cost of litigation, but will it? And is it a workable solution anyway?
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Features
Not blind before the law
Lord Denning's career as a judge dedicated to common sense and the righting of wrongs is worth celebrating especially by companies in the construction industry.
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Features
Sending the boys round
You go to court, you win, you collect your money if you live that long. A loser that will not pay can delay for years. But now there are some radical new ideas in the wind for getting at a loser's assets.
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Features
How to do 32 jobs at once
The first standard form of contract for facilities management is here, and it covers everything from insurance to cleaning in terms that construction firms will find strangely familiar.
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Features
Trouble brewing …
Real ale sales are falling away, and housebuilders are directly responsible. The reason? A combination of creaky floorboards and older drinkers inability to hold their beer.
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Features
Modern European languages
The aim of the Construction Products Directive is to create Europe-wide standards on building products. Problem is, it s almost incomprehensible and in any case it may not work.
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Features
Slippery business
If you fall off a ladder at work, don t expect the courts to award you compensation automatically. In fact, a crop of recent cases suggests you ll have a hard time proving that anyone else was to blame.
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Features
A charge too far
Like any service provider, arbitrators need to know what their customers like and dislike about the way they do their job. What their customers don't like is cancellation charges.
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Features
Loser takes all
A new court procedure caps the amount of legal costs the winner of a case can claim. That s not such good news for winners or for their lawyers, so why not write and tell the Lord Chancellor so?
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Features
Welcome to our world
Thirteen months after the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland is about to get to grips with the Construction Act. What is there to learn from the past year s experience?
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Features
Better safe than sorry
The Court of Appeal has sent out a message that fines for health and safety offences have been set too low in the past. So avoid the risk of swingeing penalties by providing a safe working