The construction industry is notorious for being highly contentious. We find that the arguments which arise are being fought on a more contractual and legal basis than ever before.

We also find that many of our clients who are highly skilled in the technical aspects of construction find it increasingly difficult to deal with these contractual arguments full time. Sometimes this is because their area of expertise does not lie in contractual and legal matters and sometimes it is simply that they do not have the time and resources to deal with it.

We can therefore use our expertise and knowledge to deal with many of these contractual issues without detracting from our client’s resources. The areas where we have found ourselves most able to add value to our client is in relation to:

• Pre-tender risk assessment of contractual documents;
• Pre-start planning, training and implementation of procedures
  to safe guard the contractual position. These procedures relate
  to record keeping, issuing of notices required by contracts, cost control etc;
• Periodic reviews of the implementation of the procedures;
• Negotiation and arguing contractual points;
• Dealing with heavy weight correspondence;
• Accurate purporting of the commercial position of a project to senior management.

Obviously our exact role will be different in every occasion and will be dependent upon such things as the nature and size of the project, the level of expertise already existent within our client, and the level of commercial difficulties anticipated or encountered.