Bowdon Consulting director Patrick Waterhouse has co-authored the new leading text on disputes in NEC Contracts.  Written with NEC Users’ Group Secretary Robert Gerrard and a foreword by renowned adjudicator Tony Bingham, the book looks at how to avoid disputes and, in the event that they can’t be avoided, how to resolve them. The book is published by ICE Publishing, the sister company of the NEC contracts organisation. Copies are now available for immediate despatch from the ICE Publishing website – https://www.icebookshop.com/Products/NEC4-Resolving-and-Avoiding-Disputes.aspx  

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Bowdon director Patrick Waterhouse will be addressing a meeting of construction adjudicators in South Africa on 14 February.  The event is organised by a joint initiative of the South Africa Institution of Civil Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers.  ICE-SA is the Adjudicator Nominating Body for NEC Contracts in South Africa. As a part of its initiative to promote the use of adjudication as an effective and efficient form of dispute resolution, ICE-SA has established detailed rules for admission as well as a comprehensive process for nominations where these are needed.  Patrick will be speaking on the challenges faced.

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Bowdon director Patrick Waterhouse will be addressing the Society of Construction Law in Manchester on 12 October, describing the dispute resolution provisions of the new NEC4 suite of contracts. Published in June this year the new suite contain revised provisions for dispute avoidance and dispute resolution.  Patrick will describe these and explain, based on his experience as an adjudicator and a mediator, how these are likely to work in practice. The meeting will be held at DLA Piper’s offices in Manchester. Further details and bookings are available here – https://www.scl.org.uk/participate/events/nec4-what-you-need-know-about-avoiding-resolving-disputes  

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Bowdon director Patrick Waterhouse will present a lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers in Swindon on 6 September on the subject of consultants’ liability. A brief overview of the accountabilities of consultants and how professionals acting within these organisations should safeguard themselves against future liable action with respect to the work they produce. The event will be very useful for professionals who are new to construction contracts and contract law and for those who want to gain experience in contractual knowledge for their development objectives / member attributes. Based on his experience, Patrick Waterhouse will introduce the liabilities of.

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    The new NEC4 contracts, due out this summer, will include a number of entirely new options. Whilst we’re yet to see the new contracts, it’s clear that some of the NEC Panel’s efforts have been focused towards areas that are commonly the subject of changes to the standard form through Z clauses. In terms of dispute resolution, two new concepts have been introduced; Dispute Avoidance Boards and a period for escalation and negotiation. Dispute boards have been deployed for some years on larger projects and particularly those in cross-border transactions. To accommodate dispute boards into an NEC contract, Z clauses.

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Mark Entwistle outlines the perfect way to mess up adjudication submissions… Speaking at the annual conference of the Adjudication Society in London, respected adjudicator Mark Entwistle summarised the years of bad submissions that had been made to him on occasions. Speaking primarily as a critic of parties’ conduct, Mark provided some witty observations before concluding his address with the ‘model’ submission; Late service of documents Emails submissions in batches Hard copy files that have burst one in transit and disgorged their contents with other files’ contents Missing appendices No pagination No cross-referencing Incomprehensible text Inclusion of irrelevant documents Uninvited submissions Adjudicators.

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The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has published the 2011 versions of its dispute resolution procedures.  Published together in one document for the first time, they are also available online at the ICE’s Virtual Library. The four procedures contained in the book are; ICE Adjudication Procedure 2011 ICE Arbitration Procedure 2011 ICE Dispute Board Procedure ICE Mediation/Conciliation Procedure 2011   Originally developed for use with the ICE suite of contracts, these procedures can now be used with ‘almost all forms of contract’ according to the publishers.   The procedures are published by ICE Publishing, RRP £40.00.   ISBN: 9780727757630

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This case raised issues about adjudication enforcement, crystallisation of disputes and the severability of parts of an adjudicator’s decision. The Defendant, Greencoat Construction Ltd was a main contractor employed to carry out substantial fitting out works at existing office accommodation in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. By a sub-contract Greencoat engaged Working Environments Ltd to carry out the mechanical services installation for the project. A dispute arose over payment and this was referred to adjudication. The adjudicator, Tony Bingham, dealt with jurisidiction issues and these formed part of this case.  Mr Justice Akenhead saw no good reason why the substance of the.

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