CLAIMS MANAGEMENT

Design modifications, variation orders, delays, misinterpretations, substitutions of comparable materials, and changed site conditions are among an almost infinite list of events hanging around our projects ready to take us for a ride on disputes and endless negotiations. 

Fortunately enough, project managers can now count on a series of well-engineered management tools to prevent undesirable situations becoming a project disruption, a dispute, and most likely a claim.

Unlike in the past, these management tools are now being applied right from the inception of the project creating a parallel dimension during the project life cycle to protect us against damaging and usually costly constraints.

The real novelty on this matter is that of practicing full project management at earlier stages of development and integrating tools usually given low priorities by project team members. Disputes and claims can definitively be avoided. There is no reason to think otherwise when we have excellent tools such as:

• Project Life Cycle Analysis;
• Constructability;
• Value Engineering Analysis;
• Critical Path Method;
• Just in Time Procurement;
• Modern contracting Administrative Strategies; and
• A good cost and schedule control system criteria.

Although these tools have been available to all us for quite a long time, they have never been successfully applied to project management due to conventional management wrong belief requiring them to be used only on limited basis at later stages of the project life cycle.

Modern project management is not only integrating these tools in all the stages of the project life cycle, but it is emphasizing their priority as decision-making tools and indispensable requirements to guarantee accomplishment of targets and disputes prevention.

Some Claim Prevention Suggestions  

• Carefully analyze and consider exactly what you are building and precisely how it will be built so the contractor does not have to assume or guess about any aspects of the job. 
• Complete the project design before the contract is bid, and if some parts of the project cannot be completely designed at bid stage, clearly identify them and its possible impact.
• Conduct a thorough review of the design prior to the bid stage to identify and correct any design errors or inadequacies. 
• Give bidders sufficient time to carry out a complete review of the bid package and an investigation of the construction site. 
• Allow enough construction time, remember that in this context, time is not money. Do not assume that bidders will simply increase their bids to cover a short schedule. 
• Identify with enough anticipation what type of contract will best suit the project. 
• Think about every sentence included in the contract, why it is there and whether it is necessary. 
• Clearly identify in the contract every operation that the contractor must accomplish to complete the job.
• Draft for clarity, not confusion. Use a standard list of definitions, and always use the same defined word consistently.

SYSTEM CONSULTS DISPUTES RESOLUTION SERVICES

• Issue Evaluation;
• Issue solution mediation;
• Disputes prevention implementation;
• Partnering development;
• Contractual Disputes Resolution System;
• London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA);
• International Chamber of Commerce (ICC);
• Alternative Disputes Resolution Implementation;
• Contract Changes Administration;
• Spot Advice;
• Software implementation; and
• Training.