Keating ChambersConstruction, Interrupted

Construction, Interrupted

A guide to delay and disruption under English law

Peter Brogden, Keating Chambers

This guide explains how English law deals with construction projects that run late: what delay is, how it is proved, who gets more time and who pays. Each chapter explains its topic plainly, says why the rules are as they are, shows them at work on real cases and a model project, and links every legal statement to its source, so you can read the judge's own words. Read it through once, then come back to the chapter you need.

The guide

  1. 01 Why projects run late What delay and disruption are, the two questions every claim asks, and who answers them.
    1. 1.1 Delay and disruption
    2. 1.2 Why projects run late, and whose risk it is
    3. 1.3 Two questions, in order
    4. 1.4 What getting time wrong costs
    5. 1.5 The cast
    6. 1.6 Using this guide
    18 min
  2. 02 The programme: critical path and float How a programme finds the critical path, and why float decides who gets the time.
    1. 2.1 A programme is a model
    2. 2.2 The critical path and float
    3. 2.3 The path moves
    4. 2.4 Who owns the float?
    5. 2.5 Which programme, and is it a promise?
    19 min
  3. 03 Extensions of time Why the contractor gets more time, why the employer needs it to, and how much is due.
    1. 3.1 What an extension does
    2. 3.2 Time and money travel separately
    3. 3.3 The prevention principle
    4. 3.4 Why the clause protects the employer
    5. 3.5 How much time?
    6. 3.6 Down the chain: subcontracts
    19 min
  4. 04 Notices and time bars A good claim can be lost before it starts, on a notice clause.
    1. 4.1 Why the contract wants to hear from you
    2. 4.2 When a missed notice kills a claim
    3. 4.3 What a notice must say, and when the clock starts
    4. 4.4 What the bar takes and what it leaves
    5. 4.5 Is there a way back?
    6. 4.6 The clocks in the standard forms
    20 min
  5. 05 The certifier The employer's agent who must decide fairly, and why its decisions can be reopened.
    1. 5.1 One person, two jobs
    2. 5.2 What fairness asks
    3. 5.3 How an extension decision is made
    4. 5.4 Interference and silence
    5. 5.5 Not the last word
    6. 5.6 Decisions that stick
    19 min
  6. 06 Proving delay: forecast or look back What held up completion, why, and the moment from which the question is asked.
    1. 6.1 Late activity, late project
    2. 6.2 Critical is not the same as causing
    3. 6.3 Forecast or look back
    4. 6.4 Which question does your contract ask?
    5. 6.5 Who has to prove it?
    19 min
  7. 07 The six methods of delay analysis One question, six ways to answer it, and how a tribunal judges the answer.
    1. 7.1 One question, six ways to answer it
    2. 7.2 Methods that start from the event
    3. 7.3 Methods that start from the delay
    4. 7.4 Same project, different answers
    5. 7.5 Choosing a method
    6. 7.6 What tribunals look for
    19 min
  8. 08 Concurrency Two causes of one delay, and who pays for it.
    1. 8.1 What concurrency means
    2. 8.2 Time, but not money
    3. 8.3 Was it concurrency at all?
    4. 8.4 How firm is the English rule?
    5. 8.5 Writing your own rule
    6. 8.6 Scotland and elsewhere
    24 min
  9. 09 Liquidated damages The agreed price of finishing late, and when it stops running.
    1. 9.1 What the clause is for
    2. 9.2 Penalty or fair bargain?
    3. 9.3 Running the clause
    4. 9.4 Parts of the works, and caps
    5. 9.5 Termination
    6. 9.6 When the date falls away
    19 min
  10. 10 Acceleration Paying to finish sooner, and who pays.
    1. 10.1 What acceleration buys
    2. 10.2 Buying speed under the contract
    3. 10.3 Whose delay is it?
    4. 10.4 Damages for reasonable acceleration
    5. 10.5 "Constructive acceleration"
    6. 10.6 The late variation trap
    19 min
  11. 11 Disruption and lost productivity When the work took more hours than it should have, and how to prove it.
    1. 11.1 Hours, not dates
    2. 11.2 What slows a gang
    3. 11.3 There is no clause called "disruption"
    4. 11.4 Measuring the loss
    5. 11.5 Choosing the mile
    6. 11.6 When there is no clean mile
    19 min
  12. 12 Global claims and causation Proving what an event cost, and what happens when you cannot trace every pound.
    1. 12.1 What a money claim must prove
    2. 12.2 From correlation to proof
    3. 12.3 What a global claim is
    4. 12.4 The English rule: allowed, but hard to prove
    5. 12.5 When another cause gets in
    6. 12.6 A floor, not a ceiling
    7. 12.7 Bringing and answering a global claim
    19 min
  13. 13 The money What delay costs, who pays for it, and how the sum is proved.
    1. 13.1 Where the money comes from
    2. 13.2 Sorting the costs
    3. 13.3 Prolongation: the cost of the extra time
    4. 13.4 Disruption, and paying once
    5. 13.5 Head office overheads and profit
    6. 13.6 Down the chain
    7. 13.7 Interest, finance charges and the cost of claiming
    20 min
  14. 14 Records and evidence The job's own paperwork decides most delay claims, and what it leaves out counts too.
    1. 14.1 Why the records decide
    2. 14.2 What to keep, and what each record proves
    3. 14.3 The programme is a record too
    4. 14.4 When the record is silent
    5. 14.5 When a dispute starts
    17 min
  15. 15 Experts and the tribunal Who analyses the delay, who decides it, and how fast.
    1. 15.1 The experts give evidence; the tribunal decides
    2. 15.2 Whose side is the expert on?
    3. 15.3 Narrowing the fight before trial
    4. 15.4 Where delay disputes are decided
    5. 15.5 What an adjudicator may do with a delay analysis
    6. 15.6 Testing the expert, and paying for the fight
    20 min
  16. 16 JCT, NEC and FIDIC compared Three contracts do the same job for delay, and give the same event three different answers.
    1. 16.1 Three families, one job
    2. 16.2 One list or two
    3. 16.3 Asking, deciding, and taking it back
    4. 16.4 The programme and the float
    5. 16.5 Damages, early warning and acceleration
    6. 16.6 Disputes, and the numbers that moved
    21 min