03 / Claims & Disputes
Recover what you are owed. Defend what is claimed against you.
The commercial position is won in the file, not in the hearing room. Disciplined notice, contemporaneous records, a programme that reads in a straight line, and a claim narrative tied to the contract mechanism. Engagements run from single-issue variations through to DAAB submissions, adjudication, and DIAC arbitration support.
When contractors call us
If any of these is live on your project, the time to act is now.
- ◆An EOT has been rejected, or is about to be
- ◆Liquidated-damages exposure is building
- ◆Variations have been instructed but not valued
- ◆Payment has been withheld or certified down
- ◆The final account is stuck
- ◆Contra-charges are being levied against you
- ◆The programme has not been accepted
- ◆Records are weak and the claim needs a spine
- ◆Your legal team is engaged, but the commercial and quantum narrative needs structure
Most disputes are lost before they become disputes. The earlier the commercial position is built — while the records are alive and the people are still on site — the more of it survives. Get control before the file becomes archaeology.
Delay analysis and Extension of Time
Programme-based time-impact analysis under FIDIC, NEC and bespoke forms. Critical-path narrative, time-impact methodology aligned to the contract requirement, and a claim package that holds up when the Engineer or Project Manager pulls it apart.
Variation valuation and quantum
Valuation of variations and change. Final account preparation. Quantum assessment and presentation for adjudication, DAAB and arbitration, prepared alongside your legal team. Where a formal independent expert report is required, we bring in a credentialed expert and build the quantum analysis underneath it. Grounded in contemporaneous records and contract methodology, not retrospective reconstruction.
Claims preparation and defence
Preparation, response and settlement negotiation. Both sides of the table. Contractor-side claim packages structured as quasi-legal submissions. Employer-side defence of incoming claims with a focused commercial counter-position.
DAAB, adjudication, arbitration
Submission preparation and strategic support for standing Dispute Avoidance/Adjudication Boards under FIDIC 2017; adjudication under NEC W1 / W2; and DIAC- and DIFC-seated arbitration. We work alongside your legal team. The legal argument is theirs; the commercial argument is ours.
How it usually works
Disputes engagements scale from a one-off variation review (fixed-fee, one to two weeks) through to multi-month involvement on a substantial claim or arbitration. Some engagements run as live commercial leadership on a project that is heading into formal dispute; others are pure expert support to a legal team that is already engaged.
Every engagement starts with a confidential 30-minute call to scope the work and confirm there is no conflict. We will not act on both sides of the same dispute.
Where we fit
We do not provide legal advice. We lead the commercial, contractual-administration and quantum position alongside your legal advisers — we work with construction lawyers, not instead of them. Engaged early, the commercial work often settles the matter before legal cost escalates; where it goes formal, your lawyers inherit a commercial and quantum case that is already built. Where an independent testifying expert is required, one is appointed separately for that role.
Live commercial concern or formal dispute?
The earlier we engage, the more recovery is available. Even pre-formal-notice, the commercial case for getting a senior view on the file is usually compelling.
Arrange a confidential conversation