Our Services: Existing Claims and Disputes
Claims/Defence Preparation and Negotiation
Deciding on the correct Claims Management Strategy is important
for any construction contract, but success will not be secured
unless the strategy is implemented progressively throughout
the execution of the contract. Successful implementation and
control relies on an excellent standard of Contract Administration.
The main components of successful claims (and
claim defence documents) are:
- Establishing the best possible contractual grounds and
powerful arguments.
- Establishing the correct interpretation of document terms.
- Clear and persuasive demonstration of technical issues.
- Demonstrating clear links between cause and effect.
- Clear demonstration of financial impacts and clear and
convincing document presentations.
- Good records to support the submissions.
- Skill in presenting, explaining and negotiating
the submissions.
Richard Burke Partnership
is most commonly called in to prepare or defend claims, for
events or issues that have already developed. In these instances,
Richard Burke Partnership
would typically undertake the following:
- Analyse the documents making up the contract.
- Analyse the correspondence and other project records.
- Analyse the schedule and progress reports (when delay
is concerned) as well as cost records
- Interview/liaise with project personnel to obtain clarification
of specific issues arising from the analysis.
- Assess strengths and weaknesses of argument and evidence
and agree a resolution strategy with our client.
- Prepare documentation, charts, illustrations and other
presentation material for use in documentary exchanges
and meetings (either informal negotiation or
formal proceedings).
- Attend negotiations meetings (or dispute
resolution proceedings).
- Provide contractual, technical and commercial advice
at all stages.
Since most claims are settled informally, our experience
has shown us that establishing contractual grounds for a claim
(or a claim defence) represents a small part of the resolution
process. This is far outweighed by the importance of being
able to convince the opposition through excellent technical,
logical and practical presentations, backed up by impressive
documentary substantiation.
Richard Burke Partnership
has developed a computerised database system for analysing
the client s records. Pertinent details are logged to the
data base, and coded according to claim topic, schedule element,
location, system etc.
This means that the complete story surrounding a particular
argument can be quickly drawn out and essential links between
CAUSE and EFFECT can be accurately established, providing
us with an impressive tool which can be used to support our
clients arguments during exchange of documented claims and
in negotiation meetings.
Our claims teams comprise professionals from the full range
of construction disciplines including quantity surveyors,
engineers, schedulers and legally qualified staff. When necessary,
they are supported by IT database staff in our Edinburgh office.
We are able to amalgamate the skills of these various disciplines
by keeping flexibility in team make up; bringing in specialist
individuals only at the times they are specifically required.
This means that we can minimise the core team size, which
gives the greatest economy to our clients, whilst preserving
the highest quality of service.
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