Opinion – Page 635

  • Comment

    Within reasons

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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?

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Labour's philosophical fog

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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

    Hansom

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    This week: the Treasury gets radical, Philip Cleaver gets tough, the Conservatives get mopy, photocopying gets expensive and BAA gets weird

  • Comment

    Be braver

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    Britain's proud reputation for cutting edge design is in danger of being stifled by an increasingly risk-averse society and pressure from the insurance giants

  • Comment

    A question of … timing

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Stuck to your guns?

    2002-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Indecent proposals

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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

    Hansom

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    This week: find out who's tipped for Egan's job, deal with demonic possession, cover yourself in olive oil and make crime pay …

  • Comment

    Blind man's bluff

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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?

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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?

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Planned obsolescence

    2002-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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

    2002-03-28T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Don't get cute

    2002-03-28T00:00:00Z

    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 …

  • Comment

    Biologically better

    2002-03-28T00:00:00Z

    When is a project like a biology lesson? When clients have to distinguish between parasitic, value-sucking consultants and their symbiotic integrated cousins

  • Comment

    Hansom

    2002-03-28T00:00:00Z

    This week, Laing Homes turns Chinese, forklifts at dawn in East Anglia, Tube fat cats uncovered – and other stories The Daily Express may be interested in

  • Comment

    Mightier than the word

    2002-03-28T00:00:00Z

    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?