Dispute Avoidance.

We believe dispute avoidance should be the fundamental objective of any party involved in construction.

Inherent management strategies and administrative systems are invaluable. Our experience in resolving disputes qualifies us to offer practical advice on how to avoid them in the first place. Construction disputes tend to follow common themes, so the chances are we’ve experience in the same issues that you have. Our service offering in this regard follows three simple management principles:
Prepare, Manage, Negotiate.

Prepare

In order to mitigate the chances of conflict and dispute, it is essential that you understand the basis upon which you have contracted to deliver a product or service. It is not possible to remove all Contractual risks, but it is important that you understand the risks that you’ve taken.

Many people don’t read contracts, so we offer a review service to plug the gap and reduce your risk. Our experience with standard forms of contract such as JCT and NEC, is supplemented with substantial experience of bespoke forms used by leading Contractors and Clients. Once you’ve signed your contract and commenced work, we can provide on-going support to maintain continuity.

Manage

If a contract is managed competently, efficiently and timely, the chances of commercial success are enhanced. The early implementation of appropriate project controls and monitoring procedures, rather than the time consuming process of responding to issues and claims in retrospect, benefits everyone.

Our clients see the commercial benefit in investing in our services to ensure commercial success on large/complex contracts where a professional resource or a particular expertise is required. Our clients often reach financial closure quicker with Sum on board.

Negotiate

Ensuring financial closure can be difficult if your account is not in good order. Accounts can go stale, personalities can be difficult and you may have lost any commercial leverage or powers of persuasion. In any of these scenarios, we can help invigorate your accounts and turn things back in your favour.

The ambition being to negotiate a reasonable settlement for your endeavours. If negotiation does not succeed for whatever reason, you can be assured that your account is in the very best of order for presenting in a forum such as adjudication