ABSTRACT

In order to understand the nature of the legal duties which construction professionals owe to their clients and to other persons, it is necessary to know something of the general law of contract and tort. Similarly in order to appreciate the extent to which any particular professional might be held liable to pay damages to a client or some other person it is necessary to understand the broad outlines of the ways in which the law deals with issues of causation and compensation. Moreover in order to judge whether a professional may be at risk in a claim and the extent of that risk it is further necessary to have in mind some of the special rules which the law has devised both to enable certain kinds of claims to be made and to prevent certain kinds of claims being made in certain circumstances. This chapter is addressed to all construction professionals although so far as possible practical examples are employed to illustrate the points made.