No more smash and grab

So called ‘smash and grab’ adjudications were all the rage in 2015, but Stuart Pemble welcomes a recent Court of Appeal decision as perhaps the beginning of the end for this tactic

The philosophy of penalties

The Supreme Court may have rewritten the rulebook on penalty clauses, but what difference will the decision have in practice? Stuart Pemble, Isabel Teare and Miranda Whiteley offer some deep thought on the matter

An end to Construction Act exclusions?

Coulson J’s decision in Severfield (UK) Limited v Duro Felguera UK [2015] EWHC 3352 (TCC) could well be the first salvo in an attempt to amend a key part of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (“the Act”).

Review of the year: It’s a wonderful legal life

This December, the Legal Notes team of Allyson Colby, James Driscoll and Stuart Pemble have been visited by an angel, who offered them a tantalising glimpse of what could have happened if things had been otherwise in the courts in 2015