1 / 22

Facts about us

Presentation of PLESNER Swedish Society for Construction and Consulting Law European Society of Construction Law Conference, Stockholm 25 August 2005 Attorney-at-law Jens Jordahn. Facts about us. Origins dating back to 1918

griffith-quinn
Download Presentation

Facts about us

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Presentation of PLESNERSwedish Society for Construction and Consulting LawEuropean Society of Construction LawConference, Stockholm 25 August 2005 Attorney-at-law Jens Jordahn

  2. Facts about us • Origins dating back to 1918 • Among the three largest law firms in Denmark (belonging to the Danish "Magic Circle") • 150 fee-earners and a total staff of 300 • Expertise and capacity for any business law assignment • Dynamic and informal professional environment

  3. Facts about us 150 fee earners and a total staff of 300

  4. Facts about us Indexation of turnover (1997=100)

  5. Vision To be recognised in the legal market as a clearly leading commercial law firm in Denmark

  6. Construction Law We have extensive experience in advising clients on all aspects of international building and construction activities. Our clients are both leading Danish and international contracting firms and private and public developers, including government companies. Our services include EU tenders, the negotiation of contracts, including partnering agreements and project management agreements, consultancy agreements, joint ventures, agreements with sub-contractors and suppliers, advice during the construction activities and assistance regarding claims, including alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and arbitration in Danish or international forums. In recent years, we have played an important part as advisors in connection with large infrastructure projects in Denmark such as the East Bridge across the Great Belt, the Øresund Tunnel, the landworks related to the Øresund Fixed Link connecting Denmark and Sweden, the Copenhagen Metro and the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Denmark to Poland. The Fields Shopping Center in the Ørestad and the new opera house in Copenhagen are among the most recent large construction projects where we have been advising one of the parties.

  7. Construction Law • Internationally, we have been involved in the construction of the new international airport in Athens, and we are constantly working on international projects for new harbours, motorways, airports, water purifying plants, power stations, etc. • We have extensive experience in conducting arbitration proceedings in connection with construction law disputes before the Danish Building and Construction Arbitration Court (www.voldgift.dk) or arbitration tribunals set up by the International Chamber of Commerce or other international arbitration institutes as well as the Complaints Board for Public Procurement (www.klfu.dk). • Over the years, we have succeeded in maintaining and expanding the firm's central position in Danish construction law. Thus, the firm has been the secretariat for the Danish Society for Construction and Consulting Law for many years, and the members of the Department hold positions of trust in Danish and international construction law associations.

  8. Jens Jordahn’s main area of interest and practice is construction law and within this area he advises on the formation of contracts, tenders, problems with the completion of construction projects and resolution of conflicts that arise during and after the completion of such projects. Consequently, Jens Jordahn conducts a large number of legal and arbitration proceedings and he is very experienced in conducting such proceedings before the courts and the Danish Building and Construction Arbitration Court. His many years of experience has given him a solid basis for estimating the possible outcome of construction law conflicts, so that the usually not insignificant costs of legal proceedings can be saved. Your Key Contacts at Plesner

  9. Duty for the contractor to inspect the site in Denmark • According to normal practice in Denmark the owner will impose an obligation on the contractor to inspect the site carefully before submitting his tender. • The consequence of such inspection is that any obtainable information which will incur costs on the performance of the work must be included in the tender. • This rule is so universal that it is not even included in the Danish AB92 "General Conditions for the provision of works and supplies within building and engineering" or ABT93 "General Conditions for Turnkey Contracts, 1993". Even if no such clause is included in the owners' request to the contractors for submission of tenders, it is most likely that any claim relating to work, which would have been found necessary by inspection of the site, will not be admitted at Court.

  10. Duty for the contractor to inspect the site in Denmark (cont.) • Unless specific conitions impose an obligation on the contractor to perform borings or the like to check the soil conditions, or in instances of pollution, only conditions perceptible to the eye must be observed, e.g. the need for removal of vegetation, trees, woods etc., removal of old buildings or other constructions, ponds or surface water giving rise to need for establishing access roads. • Now and again the contractor is requested to perform borings to check the conditions for the making of the foundation or decontamination if polluted. • This obligation is often specified as "to an extent that provides the contractor with sufficient information to calculate his bid". • Unforeseen conditions, which were not revealed at the inspection, often give cause to claims on the part of the contractor. • A claim will be admitted if the contractor has performed his inspection according to the state-of-the-art, and the information revealed in the report give no reason to anticipate the work, and he will be awarded a normal compensation.

  11. Written regulation of the obligations for the design/build contractor in Denmark • Presentation section 2

  12. ABT 93, clause 15 • Subs. 4. • The tender documents must contain information on any analyses made of groundwater and soil conditions, contamination of other obstructions. To the extent that the tender documents do not contain exhaustive information on such obstructions, measures aimed at eliminating them and the resulting inconvenience shall be paid as extras.

  13. Where to allocate risks (Section3) • with the owner • any owner introducing the FIDIC Silver book Clause risks transfer to the contractor might be surprised if the Court does it utmost to "help" the contractor under such circumstances.

  14. Same ”rule” Design/build or Contractor • The allocation of risks in decisions by courts/arbitrators is the same irrespective of whether the problems occur under a design/build contract or under an owners' design/contractors' performance contracts.

  15. How to determine the allocation of risks? Sec 4 • According to the rules of burden of proof. • The contractor must demonstrate that the exhaustive information concerning the problem was not revealed in the tender documents. • The owner must demonstrate in which way the information was sufficiently "exhaustive".

  16. Design and Build Contracts in Denmark on Major Building and Infrastructure Contracts • None – except (maybe) the metro in Copenhagen

  17. Owners design – contractors performance (Sect. 5) • Great Belt Link, constructed in the 1980'es • The Øresund Link constructed in the 1990'es • (The construction of the metro in Copenhagen around 2000) • The new Copenhagen Opera on the harbour, 2002-2004 • The new Royal Theatre – also on the Copenhagen harbour – now under construction

  18. Recommandations • For the owner • For the contractor • For both

  19. Recommandations for the owner • provide exhaustive information with his tender documents. It pays to be conservative, • answer all questions and supply all additional information requested by the contractor. Of course, he must decide if the request is relevant, • institute a dispute resolution board to follow the construction and deal with potential claims. Of course this requires a contract of a certain volume, • anticipate exceeding the budget no matter how careful the preparation of the tender documents has been.

  20. Recommandations for the contractor • read the information provided by the owner carefully, • fulfil requests from the owner to perform tests, inspections and submit the reports with his tender, • send questions in writing to the owner if the provided information leads to uncertainties concerning the work needed for the performance of the construction, • anticipate costs not included in the bid and which he must bear.

  21. Recommandations for both • make sure the people in charge on the construction site are competent and have the necessary financial competence to deal with claims.

  22. For further information please contact Jens Jordahn  jjo@plesner.com Phone +45 33 12 11 33 Mobile +45 40 57 55 99

More Related