Retentions to be banned: what next?
Claire King examines the Government’s decision to ban retention payments in construction contracts.
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Smash and Grab (AKA Payment Notice Dispute) Adjudications: Where are we now?
This issue provides a comprehensive guide to “smash and grab” adjudications, with an overview of the basics that give rise to the right to require payment of the notified sum, consider recent case law from the courts, and provide practical tips to help employers and contractors avoid being on the receiving end of a smash and grab adjudication.
Adjudication Update: 30 years on
To mark 30 years since the Housing Grants Act introduced adjudication, we reflected on the evolution of adjudication over the past three decades and examined the key developments from 2025.
The ICE Payment Notice Dispute Model Adjudication Procedure: Worth considering?
In this blog, Claire King reviews the ICE’s recently published Payment Notice Dispute Model Adjudication Procedure, which deals specifically with smash and grab adjudications. She examines the Procedure in closer detail and reviews some of its key features, most notably its capped Adjudicator fees.
JCT Target Cost Contract: essential tips and potential traps
On 25 June 2025, JCT released its first Target Cost Contract, the final contract in the 2024 suite. In this webinar, Claire King and Andrew Jeffcoat explore how this contract aligns with and differs from other JCT contracts and how it is intended to work, providing essential insights that will allow you to navigate it with confidence and avoid any potential traps for the unwary.
Retentions: carry on consulting?
Claire King analyses the proposals made by the current Government in its recent consultation on late payments focussing specifically on its plans for retentions. Will action be taken this time and do the proposals look promising?
A new tool in town? The NEC Conflict Avoidance Option
The NEC’s new Conflict Avoidance Clauses, for use with the NEC4 ECC form, were announced earlier this year and are intended to prevent the escalation of “disagreements” into “disputes”. In this blog, Claire King reviews how they are meant to operate in the context of contracts that are already subject to statutory adjudication and examines the extent to which parties should be adding them to their dispute resolution toolkit.
Closing the Books: Managing Final Accounts in JCT and NEC Contracts
In this Insight we compare and contrast the “final account” processes under the JCT and NEC41 forms of contract and analyse how to get the best result you can from these processes.
Closing the Books: Managing Final Accounts in JCT and NEC Contracts
Managing the final account process under both NEC and the JCT forms is of critical importance not only for achieving the best commercial outcome possible but also for avoiding disputes. In this webinar Claire King and Katherine Butler compare and contrast the processes provided for in the NEC and JCT standard forms and how to get the best resolution for your project.
Dispute Boards: Do they work?
In this Insight we review the findings of the Report and crucially, whether the data suggests Dispute Boards actually work in preventing disputes and/or preventing disputes escalating. If they do, to what extent are they cost effective?
2024 Trends in Dispute Boards and Adjudication: Shaping the future of construction disputes
Jeremy Glover and Claire King of Fenwick Elliott joined Raquel Macedo Moreira of King’s College London to explore key findings from two ground-breaking reports about dispute avoidance and resolution mechanisms.
Constructing the Gold Standard: Needed more than ever?
Claire King takes a closer look at “Constructing the Gold Standard” (the “Review”), a 24-point plan designed to help clients and their supply chain optimise the procurement process .