I went from nodding in agreement to shaking my head in just two sentences: A contract sets out the expectations of both the client and the contractor. A contract gives you the peace of mind that the contractor will deliver the project within an agreed timeframe, at an agreed cost
You can agree to almost anything in your contracts… in theory. However, laws can interfere with that freedom. Just because a term is written into a contract doesn’t mean you are bound by it. Let’s demonstrate this with a real life example: my recent windows contract (which as you’ll know from last time, I did read). Read the full
Do you want a tried and tested contract? Really? Tried before the courts because it wasn’t clear enough? Tested by years of use and abuse [read Ken Adams’ view on tested language in contracts]? One of those contracts which surveys have held stoke mistrust? Or one of the ones which
Retention has had its day… Unjustified late and non-payment of a retention is unacceptable BEIS Report October 2017 Or perhaps that is wishful thinking? Build UK is implementing the Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter to move to zero retentions by 2025 (although some more enlightened employers like Network Rail have
The surveyor arrived to check our measurements and handed me an envelope, with an embarrassed shrug, saying ‘It’s just your contract. You don’t need to read it or do anything with it.’ No. No. No. No. No. We might only be replacing our misted double glazing with triple glazing (a
When you write your own contract (possibly cobbling together clauses and copying and pasting paragraphs from other contracts, the internet or elsewhere) you may find that you haven’t actually covered all the essentials. I have worked with a few companies in the construction industry who have created their own contract
A key aspect of legal design, is the concept of user-centred law. As Tessa Manuello says ‘Most legal service delivery has been designed for a world that no longer exists‘. User-centred law adapts existing legal services and systems to meet the users’ needs, rather than trying to adapt users to
The recent weekend was a significant one: my partner celebrated his 50th birthday and we celebrated 25 years since I asked him to marry me. We got engaged on a rollercoaster (one of the rickety wooden ones) in Blackpool, but this edition of the Dotted Line is not about rollercoasters.
As with any new discipline, there are many ways of defining legal design. It is: A movement to make law more accessible, usable and engaging (Emma Jelley) A merger of legal and design thinking to improve processes and outcomes (Helena Haapio) Preventing legal problems and empowering the users (Stefania Passera)
The Cultural Impact of Implementing Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the UK Construction Industry (Andrew Johnson) confirms that using BIM requires a fundamental change in working style, which is a massive cultural shift from an adversarial culture to a collaborative culture. BIM requires all project partners to: collaborate, share data,
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