Whilst interest in the recent UK judgment in the case of City Inn v Shepherd Construction may be confined to these shores, it is sufficiently important in the UK construction arena to warrant a mention on this Blog.
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Perhaps because we live ‘Down Under’, Australians have always been somewhat contrarian. We like our beer cold, for example, and play our favourite game of football with a pointy ball instead of a round one.
So while the past ten years have provided an interesting economic backdrop for players in the construction industry – [...] read more »

Question:
I am a project manager for the employer on a power plant project based in Europe. We have been on quite good terms with the contractor up until now. Last week the contractor sent us a claim for 12 weeks’ delay to the programme and for compensation costs (we are using the FIDIC Yellow Book [...] read more »

The spreading trend toward “green” building has resulted in a number of competing and overlapping certification systems, with only faint hope in sight of better standardization. United States builders are most familiar with the LEED system sponsored by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Through USGBC’s association with the World Green Building [...] read more »

The U.S momentum to build “green” is rapidly gaining popularity, with the office market currently leading the way toward more sustainable structures. The construction industry, including the publishers of form construction contracts, is scrambling to keep up. ConsensusDOCS, a relatively new group of industry organizations that is promoting a family of contract forms [...] read more »

In the wake of the current downturn, employers will increasingly look for greater budget certainty under EPC or Turnkey contracts. This is where the contractor undertakes all tasks – design, construction, management etc – so that, upon completion, the employer merely needs to ‘turn the key’ and operation of the plant or building can [...] read more »

Recent examples illustrate clearly that cancelling a project can be very expensive. The City of Ottawa recently paid over C$36 million to settle claims from contractors arising from the cancellation of a light rail transit project. In Montréal, the termination of a contract to build an incinerator has resulted in years of costly [...] read more »

As lawyers, we want what is best for our client. We will fight for that additional clause or that tricksy wording that will give our client that added protection that may, someday, prove decisive in an argument with the contractor or the employer.
One issue that lawyers often fight quite savagely over (but in that overly [...] read more »