About Bygg og Projektjus

I have been working in construction law since 1997 and my experience is that the level of conflict has increased gradually.

Law plays an increasingly large role in the disputes. This is reflected, among other things, in the increase in the number of cases before the Supreme Court. In addition, we see that the cases are becoming more voluminous. The length of judgments illustrates this. Two recent judgments of the Borgarting Court of Appeal (January and April 2024) are 68 and 162 pages respectively).

Over the years I have asked those involved in building projects why they do not contact solicitor for advice ahead of time - so conflict can be avoided. The feedback has often been that it will be too costly. So the threshold for obtaining qualified legal assistance is high. I have also held many courses for builders, contractors and for consulting companies. Experience-wise, it is often the same questions that are asked. My motive in establishing this platform is therefore to give everyone the opportunity to obtain qualified legal guidance on many of the issues and topics that usually arise in a project. Whether you are working in the early phase, with the implementation or in the complaint phase, you should be able to extract relevant legal material here. In terms of experience, this is just as relevant for those who have some experience as it is relevant for graduates.

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The short and simple answer is yes. You have to read it, but the articles are short. They are written in an easy to understand language. We have also prepared short versions and there are hyperlinks to other, relevant articles. New services will also be developed and we welcome suggestions from the subscribers. In addition to information on the platform, subscribers will be able to contact us to discuss general issues - free of charge. We do not undertake advocacy assignments, but focus on being a digital, legal “inhouse” service for small and large players.

This should be so reasonable that one cannot afford not to. An annual subscription costs about the same as an hour consultation with a senior resource at a major law firm. Then one has access to everything that is written on the platform, as well as access to ask us questions. Everything is available 24/7/365 and can be read on most platforms (pc, tablet, smartphone). The price per month should not be greater than that anyone who works with this type of question will be able to subscribe. I would also assume that the cost is tax deductible, but you have to investigate that with those who know that part of the law.

Our hope is that the builder and contractor will find a lot of relevant knowledge and thereby get guidance on how to deal with the different situations. Hopefully our articles are perceived to be written in a neutral manner. We want all parties in a construction case to be able to agree on issues by reading up on what we present here. If the platform can contribute to good project execution rather than positioning for a possible subsequent conflict we will have succeeded in our contribution.

No, we do not offer legal services. To the extent that we had to get requests we will be able to provide tips. I also practice as a lawyer myself, but ideally want to spend my time on further development of this platform.

Out-of-court mediation should be used to a much greater extent than is the case today. It is a cross of mind that many parties spend considerable resources on bringing a case before the Court where the purpose is often to access the courts' mediation offer (judicial mediation). The courts have also raised their own expectations of the parties that they should actually conduct judicial mediation. The dilemma is that by drawing up each subpoena and the like, one sharpens the contradictions among themselves. There is no ideal preparation for mediation. This is avoided if you attempt extrajudicial mediation. I myself am a certified mediator, I have mediated and myself participated in mediations. Both privately, and in the role of procedural agent for parties a number of times. It remains only to recommend. For these reasons, we have extrajudicial mediation as a separate service. The role of mediator assumes neutrality and is therefore compatible with our other offer. For the record — one does not need to be a subscriber to take advantage of our mediation offer.

Many of you who work on construction projects are non-lawyers. You guys have built up a pretty large experience base and it works in most situations. For very many, it works because one mainly communicates with other non-lawyers. It's when things go wrong that you get some “aha” experiences, and they can be expensive. Consider a subscription to our services as an allright supplement. As one of several tools it is useful to have in the digital toolbox. Perhaps you can feel more confident in your case after reading an article or two. It's worth something, too. Another thing is that you may not have to spend an afternoon or a Sunday searching for legally relevant information on your own. By subscribing, much of what you need information about will be available. And, the information in here is regularly updated.