In a salutary lesson to combatants before the VCAT, a recent example shows the Tribunal to be a pragmatic adjudicator, with one eye to the intention of legislation and how best to implement it.

In a late 2011 case before the Domestic Building List, the Insurer for a roof plumber tried to argue that the owner could not claim against the plumber at VCAT for domestic building works, because it was the wrong jurisdiction. This was on the grounds that the claim related to plumbing work and that plumbing work was excluded from the Domestic Building Contracts Act by virtue of it being a single trade. In other words, if the work related to plumbing work only, it was excluded from the Act (the DBCA) because of Clause 6 of the Regulations that says:

“6. Building work to which the Act does not apply – work to be carried out under a contract for one type of work only.”

This argument was opposed by the Applicant owner and the Tribunal agreed with the Owner, in ruling that there was jurisdiction. It was effectively accepted that Clause 6 of the Regs only applies where there is only a single trade performing the whole of the work, for example with a direct agreement between an owner and a plumber. This was not the case here, as the roof plumber was just one of several subcontractors engaged by the Builder.

The Tribunal found that if the Insurer’s narrow interpretation was to be accepted, it would mean that the Act would not give the Tribunal jurisdiction to hear and determine a dispute between a builder and its subcontractor in relation to any of those single trades referred to in Regulation 6, unless the subcontractors did more than one type of work on site. Member Riegler determined that this could not have been the intention of parliament when the Act was drafted. On matters of interpreting laws, the purpose of an Act needs to be looked at, and the purpose of the DBCA was to “itself provide jurisdiction to the Tribunal to resolve practically all disputes arising out of the construction of a residential dwelling.”

This week’s feature, features the Law firm-Lovegrove Solicitors and what we can offer our readership.

In this week`s bulletin we explain the services that the law firm provides.  Lovegrove`s was established in 1993 in the midst of the early nineties recession.  The firm was set up to assume pre-eminence in construction law.  Since then, by all accounts, the firm has grown to become the oldest surviving construction law boutique practice in Victoria.

Although the firm has a very strong construction law footprint in Victoria, it also has offices in the ACT, NSW and Wellington NZ. What is less well known is that the firm does a tremendous amount of commercial and civil dispute resolution.  Be it partnership disputes, commercial debt recovery, IT and IP law or even defamation, Lovegrove Solicitors has accumulated many years of experience and acumen in the commercial arena.

So without further ado, we will provide a brief synopsis on our capabilities and encourage the reader to invest a little bit of time in due diligence on our various divisions.

Construction Law Division

A preeminent cross jurisdictional building law firm.  Six construction lawyers and 3 construction partners.  Very strong on “front end” and “back end” contractual matters. Lovegrove Solicitors is the number one law firm in building regulation.  The firm provides advice to contractors and practitioners throughout the country and we have had conduct of matters in the NSW, Victorian and Queensland Supreme Courts. The results needless to say have been stellar. For more information about the construction law division click here.

Construction Law ACT Division

We act for building practitioners and contractors in the ACT and have done so for many years.  Be it contractual dispute resolution, debt recovery or residential arbitration we have done it all.  To find out more about us click here.

Commercial and Commercial Dispute Resolution Division

Contract drafting, contract negotiation, crafting of partnership agreements, lease negotiations IT & IP law.  We have run large multi-million dollar cases in the Supreme Courts of Victoria, NSW and Queensland, covering the full gamete of commercial subsets.  We once sued a major TV station for defamation on behalf of one of our clients and the result was superlative. For your due diligence click here.

Town Planning Division

The division headed up by managing partner Stephen Smith has both seniority and a high level of expertise in planning law. We act for developers and objectors, local government and practitioners. We regularly have conduct of matters in the Planning list of the VCAT and have had carriage of many matters in the Land and Environment Court of NSW. To find out more about the division click here.

Local Government Division

Over the years we have acted for many Victorian  and NSW councils on matters ranging from building regulatory and planning compliance matters to a coronial inquest.  More about us can be found by clicking here.

Law Reform Division

One of our lawyers had carriage of the National Model Building Act, that reshaped modern day building control, was the key legal adviser to  the development of the building Act 1993 and the part 4 reforms of the EPAANSW.  The same lawyer represented the federal government as a guest of the Japanese government at a Ministerial forum charged with overhauling Japanese building regulation in the mid-nineties.For law reform division click here.

Trans-Tasman and Dually Qualified NZ and Australian legal Practitioners.

We are one of the very few Australian and NZ law firms that has legal practitioners with both NZ and Australian Legal practicing certificates.  We are building up  a practise that concentrates on helping companies and individuals that require legal services cross jurisdictionally.  To find out more about this rare expertise click here.

Our elibrary and our eBooks

 E – library

The Lovegrove Solicitor’s E- Library is a free online resource of articles, which puts a wealth of information at your finger tips. The articles in the E- Library have been written by lawyers and a number of them have been published in the Australian, The Age and the Herald Sun. Some of the articles date back to the 1990′s and the E – Library is regularly updated.to take a look  click here.