Legal

Issues can arise when contracts unfairly shift risks down the supply chain, often to parties that are not best equipped to manage them. A new document from Build UK aims to promote collaboration between clients, consultants, contractors, and the supply chain. Build UK says that standard forms of contracts, such…

Ashley Matthews is an associate in the employment team at Thomson Snell & Passmore Despite being a fast-growing sector, construction must contend with a labour shortage, rising material costs and project delays. Costly tribunal claims, loss of staff and reputational damage put unnecessary – and potentially fatal – pressure on…

Rico Wojtulewicz is head of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders On 22 July, the Times reported that the government is considering whether development projects will be permitted to secure nutrient-neutrality mitigation during construction, rather than before work begins. While this acknowledges that the existing system is unfair,…

Matthew Taylor is a partner and Aidan Steensma is of counsel at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang  The Supreme Court last week reversed 11 years of law in relation to the existence of a statutory right to adjudicate under collateral warranties. The right depends on whether a collateral warranty is…

Is a looming legal time limit behind a rise in defect claims relating to long-completed schemes built under private finance intiatives?  In autumn 2021, North Kent Police Station’s geothermal heating system broke down. Almost three years later, the administrators of the company holding the station’s private finance initiative (PFI) brought…

Kirsteen Milne is a partner at Brodies LLP For the past few years the insurance and bonds market has been hardening, but the headlines in mid-June that QBE Europe has pulled out of the construction market is a blow to contractors. This follows other big surety providers pulling out of…

Construction News talks to a client and a contractor who have used the Conflict Avoidance Process (CAP) to resolve issues which have cropped up on contracts. The CAP was established six years ago to help parties avoid expensive legal proceedings to resolve disputes. Read CN's full article about how the…

Caroline Watkins is a partner in the construction team at Thomson Snell & Passmore The benefits of getting the allocation of risk correct in a construction contract are invaluable, with external and sometimes internal influences posing considerable risk. “The effort put in at the start can offset a considerable amount…

Hundreds of organisations have signed the Conflict Avoidance Pledge. CN examines whether or not it can make a real difference Six years ago, a group of industry figures announced their plan for helping to resolve contractual disputes without expensive legal fights. They wanted to gather as many players as possible…

The Design and Build element of the JCT 2024 suite of contracts was unveiled in April – but do lawyers think it represents meaningful change? It’s been eight years since the construction industry saw the launch of the previous suite of Joint Contract Tribunal (JCT) documents. At that point, events…