The City of London Law Society Standard Form of Letter of Intent combines four distinct categories: a record of the current state of negotiations on the intended ‘full’ contract a fall-back position if the full contract is never signed financial limits on the payer’s liability, and a simple contract for
Build UK has set out its list of six unacceptable terms for UK construction contracts: fitness for purpose – should not be included except in the process sector [where it is modified by testing and limits on liability] unquantifiable risks – certain items should not be a contractor risk where
In a 2022 case concerning a £154m energy from waste EPC (engineer, procure, construct) project the court had to review the relevant contemporaneous evidence and key legal documents. The court noted that the EPC contract and its schedules run to 7,259 pages. The Outotec subcontract is less complex at 564
A contract is a very serious matter… you can’t suggest people go and have fun once it’s signed. That’s me told… a senior lawyer admonished me in this way after reviewing an early edition of the 500-word contract (and its user guide). But you can have fun with contracts: consider
Contracting needs to be customer-centric, technology-friendly and process-conscious to succeed in the current tech age. Customer-centric Customer-centric contracts are ones which are simple to read, understand and use, and provided as part of a simple, clear process to convert a prospect into a raving fan! We all know the frustrations
To paraphrase William Shakespeare (the Bard): “If contracts be the food of love, play on. Give me excess clauses that, surfeiting, The appetite for jargon may sicken and so die. That Latin phrase, it had a dying fall… O contract spirit, how mean-spirited art thou, That, notwithstanding thy word-smithery Is
Studies estimate that the vast majority – 70% – of friction points occur before your contract is signed (Deloitte article)… assuming it is ever signed! Why does this matter? It means a company is losing money, losing customers, and burdened with unnecessary admin during the contracting process. Streamlining contracting can
What is a cognitive bias? These are shortcuts to help us act and think efficiently, and (in the past) to survive. They also help us understand each other better. Sometimes these are referred to as the curse of knowledge. Not all of these shortcuts are based on logic! There are
The RIBA Construction Contracts and Law Survey 2022 has again shown that roughly 1/3 projects start without a contract being in place: 65% signed before construction starts (yay) 32% between the start and end of construction (ahem) 2% after completion (oiks) 2% never signed (arggh). Back in 2011, David Mosey
Reinforcing my experience The latest Arcadis Global Disputes Report (2022) confirms a few of the experiences I have as a contracts lawyer: contracts are rarely without errors – in 2021 errors or omissions in the contract documents were the second biggest cause of global disputes contracts reviews are worth the