Construction Delays and Other Claims - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 358

the arbitrator if the parties fail to reach a mediated settlement within a specific
time frame (Sweet and Schneier, 2008).
5. Litigation : When none of the previous processes works and the parties cannot
reach a settlement, the complaining party may sue the other party in a court of
the law. The legal process is complex and often involves pretrial discovery pro-
cedures, such as interrogatories (written questions to the other party), requests
for the production of documents, and pretrial testimony in depositions. When
the matter goes to trial, the facts may be decided by a jury or a judge who may
be overwhelmed by the technical details involved in a construction delay claim.
Construction litigation is usually complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.
Many plaintiffs spend more money on attorney's fees than they later recover
by the court's judgment.
6. Adjudication: For construction claims in the United Kingdom, there is an
alternative dispute resolution method known as adjudication . The goal of
adjudication is to provide a speedy and cost-effective method of resolving dis-
putes on an “interim basis,” allowing the decision to be “enforced pending final
determination.” 20 The procedure can be invoked during the course of con-
struction to address payment disputes, performance problems, time extensions,
delays, change order valuations, and other claims related to the construction
contract. An adjudicator is appointed within 7 days of the notice of the dis-
pute, and the adjudicator generally must decide a dispute in less than 42 days
from the time the matter has been referred, although this can be extended by
14 days. Typically, the adjudicator may request documents and written state-
ments, meet and question the parties and their representatives, make site visits,
perform tests and examinations, and appoint experts. The adjudicator must
ascertain the facts and the law relating to the dispute. In most cases, the adju-
dicator's decision is final and binding and may be implemented immediately.
A party that is dissatisfied with the adjudicator's decision may have it reviewed
by a court, but such proceedings may not be started before the contract's
completion or termination (Bingham, 2003). In the majority of cases dealing
with the challenges to enforcement, the courts have upheld the adjudicators'
decisions (Knowles, 2002). 4 Thus, courts have helped to make adjudication a
viable means of resolving disputes (Bramble and Callahan, 2014, §14.09). 5
THE IMPORTANCE OF CPM SCHEDULES IN DELAY CLAIMS
Resolving a delay claim may be a complicated and challenging task. There might be
several concurrent factors that are impacting the schedule. A concurrent delay means
that more than one delay has contributed to the project's delay; however, it does not
necessarily mean that the delays occurred at the same time. A concurrent delay may
20 Macob Civil Eng'g Ltd. v. Morrison Constr. Ltd., BLR 156 (1999).