Legal

Chloe Derrick is a partner at law firm Stewarts The construction sector has been subject to a significant liability shift, following a wholesale review of building regulation and practice after the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017. Legal claims for cladding and fire safety losses continue to rise following Grenfell,…

 Matthew Taylor is a partner and Aidan Steensma is of counsel at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang A recent Technology and Construction Court (TCC) decision has significantly limited the scope for claimants in building safety cases to make related parties of an original developer or contractor liable for…

Shy Jackson is a partner at law firm BCLP It was back in 1994 that Sir Michael Latham stated that a modern form of contract should include a specific duty for all parties to deal fairly with each other, and with their subcontractors, specialists and suppliers, in an atmosphere of…

A decade has passed since the Modern Slavery Act became law. CN examines how far the industry has – or hasn’t – changed There is a popular concept in criminology called routine activity theory. It posits that the ideal environment for criminals to offend is when the opportunity and the…

Bill Barton is director of law firm Barton Legal Disputes continue to occur with troubling frequency across the construction industry – and remain extremely expensive. Unsurprisingly, the sector is searching for ways to limit their frequency and cost. “In the lifecycle of a construction project, it’s highly likely that some…

Mark Christie is a partner at Clarke Willmott A recent case this year in the Technology and Construction Court has shed some very welcome light on a fairly obscure part of the Construction Act relating to the correct timing for issuing pay-less notices. “The judge accepted that the argument was…

Construction leaders are calling on clients to stop placing more risk on contractors by amending standard contracts. CN examines what drives the practice and how it might be reined in It’s not unusual for details of amendments to construction contracts to run to the same 100-page length as the original…

Quentin Fox is a partner and head of professional risk at law firm Weightmans The final Grenfell Inquiry report, published in September, marked an end to the seven-year probe into the horrific apartment block fire that took the lives of 72 people on 14 June 2017.  The report and the…

Detectives investigating the Didcot Power Station collapse in which four men died have said the probe is entering its “latter stages”, as the ninth anniversary of the tragedy approaches. Coleman & Company employees Ken Cresswell, 57, Chris Huxtable, 34, John Shaw, 61, and Mick Collings, 53, died when the 10-storey…

Charis Beverton is a partner at law firm Winckworth Sherwood Since last summer’s general election, development conversations have centred around Labour’s target of building 1.5 million homes over the next five years. In December, we heard the prime minister again double down on that pledge as part of the government’s…