Early Engagement Pays Dividends

Prepare, Defend & Negotiate Claims

Client

The client we represented is a Contractor who constructed access roads, reinforced concrete structures and control buildings to a pharmaceutical plant for an Employer in the energy sector.

Sector

Building, Energy and Infrastructure

Contract Value

The value of this contract was €7,088,113

Challenge

This project contained many challenges and issues that resulted in our client being delayed and disrupted on the project and incurring considerable additional cost. A non-exhaustive list of events that occurred on the project are as follows:

Encountered unforeseen ground conditions, which result in additional works to overcome
Many changes to the Employers tender design
Late possession of parts of the site
Late design information
Disruption to the works by other contractors

The contract contained strict criteria that had to be complied with by our client when seeking compensation and an extension of time from the Employer. This required early notification of the events and a detailed and timely substantiation of each claim.

Our client did not have the in-house expertise to administer and substantiate claims to comply with the criteria outlined in the contract.

Solution

Our client engaged us at the outset of the project once they realised the project was being impacted by many compensation and delay events. Once engaged, we proceeded by

Advising on a system and level of record-keeping required to allow us to notify and substantiate claims to the Employer in accordance with our clients’ contractual obligations.
We supervised in-house personnel and met regularly to ensure the correct records were being kept and all compensation and delay events were being identified.
We gather the evidence relating to each event and issued notices and substantiations of claims to the Employer.
Attended regular commercial meetings on our clients’ behalf with the Employer where we negotiated and agreed on the value of each compensation event and extension of time.

Result

The project contained 345 compensation and delay events to the value of €1,455,665. The administrative burden of notifying and substantiating each of these events was significant. By our client engaging with us at an early stage, it allowed is to

Submit to the Employer early notification of each compensation and delay events
clearly providing evidence of the facts
identifying where our client had an entitlement under the terms of the contract

This allowed us engage with the Employer proactively and professionally on behalf of our client. The Employer could clearly see why additional sums should be paid. While an agreement was not reached on all claims, we negotiated a final additional payment of €1,222,000 on behalf of our client.

This outcome would not have been possible only for our client having the foresight to engage our services at the outset of this project.

Prepare, Defend & Negotiate Claims