A compendium of articles by Michael Charlton.

1. The Quantity Surveyor As Expert Witness
2. Expert Witnesses: Are Courts and Arbitral Tribunals Asking too much from Them?
3. The Games Experts Play?
4. The Trials of Being An Expert Witness
5. Mediators - What Should We Expect From Them

 

13 October 2020

2275

Last year I was invited to give the Winnie Whittaker Memorial Lecture to the East Asia Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in Hong Kong, and this I duly did on 30 June 2015.

Winnie Whittaker was a chartered quantity surveyor who spent most of her professional career in Hong Kong. She became very interested and involved in dispute resolution and was an active and well respected arbitrator. She was particularly keen on education and worked for the Institute's committee in HongKongfor many years. Unfortunately she died some 10 years ago at the relatively young age of 57 and such was her reputation that the East Asia Branch felt it appropriate to recognize her achievements with an annual lecture.

10 September 2020

2772

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What is the future of arbitration in the Hong Kong construction industry?

A Slide Presentation by Michael Charlton, first presented on the 30th of June 2015.

Download it Here.

 

09 September 2020

1978

Contractors are often placed in the position of having to prepare claims for extensions of time and loss and expense which are then assessed by a third party on behalf of the Owner or Employer.

Assessing entitlement to extensions of time usually requires access to a massive amount of data on the average construction project and experience shows that there are usually not enough factual records to establish the entitlement being claimed. Apart from scarcity of records, the key management tool available to assess the impact of delays, the project schedule, is also frequently neglected for one reason or another or worse, it is abused to give a fictitious presentation of progress month on month going unchallenged by the other side. Under such circumstances where there is a dearth of necessary information the parties tend more often than not to rely on their perceptions of what caused the critical delay or delays to the project when assessing extension of time claims under the Contract.

25 November 2017

3665

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INTRODUCTION

It is an undeniable fact that construction projects are often fraught with events that delay the completion of the projects thus causing the contractual completion dates to lapse. The delays could either be caused by the Employer or Contractor or by a neutral event such as force majeure. It is a common practice that such contracts incorporate provisions for liquidated damages for the period in which the construction works remain incomplete due to delays by the Contractor for which he may not be excused so that there is a date from which such damages can run. In the event of delays to the works being caused by the Employer, provisions to extend the time for completion date are drafted into the contracts to preserve the Employer’s right to levy liquidated damages. In the absence of any such extension of time provisions, the date for completion could not be extended in the event of the Employer’s delay and as such there would not be a date from which liquidated damages could run, thus setting time at large. PAM 2006 was launched in early April 2007. The question that arises is whether PAM 2006 adequately preserves the Employer’s right to impose liquidated damages.

25 November 2017

8368

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INTRODUCTION

 “Extension of Time” is often a hotly contested issue in the construction industry and probably cause more disputes than any other issues in projects.  The question of time is usually an essential element in any construction contracts.  Construction contracts specify performance periods either by prescribing: 

• the start and completion dates; or
• a specified number of days that the work shall be completed, calculated from the notice to proceed or commencement of work.

25 November 2017

5418

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