Opinion 鈥� Page 635
-
Comment
Within reasons
If an adjudicator's decision is made up of several conclusions, do those all count as binding decisions as well, or are they reasons? It's a pretty thorny question
-
Comment
Can adjudicators add interest?
According to John Redmond, an adjudicator cannot add interest to a debt unless the contract specifically allows them to. But there's a counter argument to be put 鈥�
-
Comment
Labour's philosophical fog
So, health minister John Hutton has suddenly realised what construction knew months ago: it is already too late to deliver his new hospitals before the next election. His offer to subsidise bids, truncate tender lists and hire more Whitehall project managers has, therefore, the hallmarks of political panic (pages 28-29). ...
-
Comment
A question of … timing
If you owe me money, and I owe you money, does it make sense to just pay the difference? Let's see how two barristers and a judge sort out this tricky problem 鈥�
-
Comment
Stuck to your guns?
After you start an adjudication, can you introduce new arguments or fresh evidence? A recent decision suggests not, but clarification is needed urgently
-
Comment
The loves of Lady Justice
The goddess of justice had a soft spot for consultants, and tended to take their side in tort cases. Now it seems she's found a significant other 鈥�
-
Comment
Indecent proposals
This is a story about a householder who agreed to pay a dodgy builder cash, then tried to kick him in his assets when things went wrong. What did the judge say?
-
Comment
Houses, not circuses
If 1.7 million homes are 'not decent', that means that something like the entire population of London is living in squalor. What on earth can we do?
-
Comment
Blind man's bluff
The government's response to Britain's chronic housing shortage isn't so much bad as nonexistent. Falconer is just pretending nothing is wrong
-
Comment
Where will we live tomorrow?
First transport. Then hospitals and schools. And now housing. Our latest national crisis is the shortage of affordable new homes. London is worst affected, but even Reading's prices are out of reach of nurses and teachers. Once again, we are paying for decades of underinvestment. At a time when the ...
-
Comment
Who owns Russia now?
Doing business in Russia became a lot easier in January after the publication of a "land code". Not that there aren't one or two little problems left 鈥�
-
Comment
Planned obsolescence
The development industry believes Lord Falconer's planning green paper is ill thought-out and will, ironically, make planning applications even more complicated
-
Comment
Variation, and a theme
If you sign a long-term deal with a client, congratulations. And if you haven't ensured you can keep up your end, commiserations. You're at the mercy of fate 鈥�
-
Comment
Don't get cute
Go to court with finely honed legal arguments that contradict the spirit of the Construction Act, and you can expect the kind of treatment ABB got in this case 鈥�
-
Comment
Biologically better
When is a project like a biology lesson? When clients have to distinguish between parasitic, value-sucking consultants and their symbiotic integrated cousins
-
Comment
Mightier than the word
Oral promises, as we know, are not worth the paper they're not written on. But what about minutes, fee notes and schedules? What legal force do they have?