Preparing claims for extensions of time commences with identifying the various events or circumstances affecting a contractor’s progress and impacting the time for completion. 

This initial identification is either done directly by our client’s contracts department or frequently undertaken by ourselves, where, working in conjunction with our client’s personnel, we can ensure that issues are identified and notified promptly and that the effects are monitored and recorded and that the necessary contractual correspondence and records are prepared and issued in a manner that aligns with our client’s contract.  This allows us to maintain and pursue our client’s entitlement to the additional time and associated costs of delay.

Whether preparing initial notifications or the subsequent preparation of detailed particulars of claim, our claims work routinely involves us carrying out the detailed review and research of project documentation, as well attending progress and technical meetings, and liaising with site-based staff, in order to hone in on the issues affecting progress and identify the information requirements to support our client’s claim.  This process frequently includes the need to liaise with our client’s construction and project controls staff but also our client’s subcontractors so as to review and analyse site progress and obtain key information.

We don’t stop there.  We also research and prepare claim updates, advise our clients on the impacts of delay on their programme, and where necessary, undertake the preparation of monetary claims and assist with the presentation and negotiation of issues with our client’s employers and/or their representatives.

We can also assist with the defence of claims and defence strategies and assisting negotiation or dispute proceedings; whether this is defending claims from our client’s employers or our client’s subcontractors, either way, we can advise on presenting any respective arguments in a simple, easy to understand way.

We offer a comprehensive range of forensic planning and delay analysis services which can be tailored to suit a client’s particular needs.

We are frequently requested to undertake a detailed review of a client’s baseline or construction programmes as well as undertake forensic delay analysis and programme impact analysis to identify entitlements to additional time.

We are experienced in all forms of forensic analysis – from simple as-planned impacted, and the use of collapsed as-built, to more complex windows analysis.

We can also assist with demonstrating delay recovery measures and disruption, and are able to offer in-house or external presentations demonstrating the effect of events on the project programme in a clear and concise manner, whether this is to assist our client’s construction team or client’s board of directors understand the issues affecting their various projects, or to our client’s employers or external consultants.

We can also prepare independent and expert planning reports for use in negotiations, or in mediations and arbitrations; and have experience of providing planning support and expert evidence in arbitrations.

We are regularly called upon by clients for advice on the interpretation of contractual provisions and their respective rights and obligations under their contracts with employers, as well as provide assistance with implementing many of those same contractual obligations and requirements.

Our services ranges from providing initial advice or reports as to the contractual and legal merits of particular issues, to providing regular contract administration services, such as the preparation of contractual notifications and ensuring that any notices plus any necessary updates are researched, prepared and submitted in a timely manner.

We are often required to provide an initial assessment of a specific issue and this often entails preparing peer reviews or ‘position papers’ on various contractual matters for and on behalf of our clients, advising for example how a contractor can preserve and protect its position with its employer and mitigate risk.

If a certain issue warrants specific legal input, then we can serve as the interface between our client’s legal team and our client thus ensuring our client receives the best possible all-round contracts and legal advice.

We have experience of preparing independent third party and expert reports as well as arranging expert witnesses and independent experts on a number of project specific, complex issues, predominantly on programme related matters; having providing planning support and expert evidence in arbitrations, as well as providing expert planning reports for use in negotiations, or as part of mediations and arbitrations.

In the event that issues between our clients and their employers or subcontractors escalate and become a formal dispute, not only can we advise on an appropriate dispute strategy but can provide assistance on matters moving forwards; whether this is the drafting of dispute notifications and preparing statements of claim, or liaising with in-house or external legal and technical experts and the presentation of issues in subsequent negotiations or in preparing for and then engaging in mediation, arbitration or litigation.

We are experienced in the giving of presentations as well as hosting workshops and seminars.

This ranges from internal and external presentations – either assisting our client or our client’s employers or external consultants – as means of demonstrating the various issues and critical delays affecting a project, or as means of encouraging our client’s site-based construction personnel to maintain adequate records at the time the delay and disruption is occurring.

We find that not only does this assist in improving our client’s engineering and construction teams’ understanding of the client’s contractual obligations but also ensures that the necessary information is recorded and utilised in such a manner so as to improve the overall claim management process thereby improving our client’s ability to recover the extra time and associated costs.

Our internal workshops and presentations have included subject matter such as stressing the importance of ‘Claims, Notices and Extensions of Time’, as well as warning of the ramifications of ‘Changes by Stealth’.

We have also provided numerous workshops to our client’s principle subcontractors as means of ensuring they adhere to the contractual mechanisms contained in their contracts for the giving of notice, preparing and issuing detailed particulars, and providing appropriate delay analyses; and applies in situations where our client wishes to maintain a collaborative approach for recovering upstream delays against employers.