Construction Disputes - The Usual Suspects

April 21, 2026

Welcome to this current edition of InFocus and to another round of thought-provoking articles prepared by our senior team. I’m always grateful for the positive feedback we receive and the subsequent conversations we have with clients and colleagues in related matters.

I have today, whilst we all continued to face an extraordinary set of challenges last year, our work with client teams has yielded a fantastic series of results throughout 2025.

We are always intentional in working with client teams to improve outcomes and, in particular, in taking forward all and any lessons learned along the way. It remains true that many of the positive results I refer to would have been a great deal more straightforward, if it were not for the usual suspects challenging client teams in matters which have become contested or disputed.

So, what exactly are the “usual suspects” to which I refer?

It’s at this point, Dear Reader, that I have to remind myself that… interrogating all things “contract” and the corresponding “obligations” that derive from them, isn’t everyone’s idea of quality time; however, this is where the list of usual suspects begins.

Contracts, obligations, and audit trails

If your project team doesn’t have a firm (or any) grip on the contracts they’re administering, or for that matter the lengthy schedule of amendments we’ve become accustomed to… then you cannot expect them to have met their corresponding contractual obligations, fulfilled all that is contractually expected of them, or to have the audit trail (records) in place to support their position when it matters most. I should also note that, where we now regularly see employers challenging the assessments and awards (cost and time)made by their respective QSs, EAs, PMs, etc., then the “usual suspects” I refer to don’t only belong to the contractor.

The disconnect between delivery and commercial teams

In my experience, change or impact on most projects will first be identified by colleagues within the wider project “delivery” team, e.g., project managers, planners, design leads, etc., before it reaches the eyes and ears of commercial team colleagues. However, and contrary to the obvious need for project teams to collaborate on all such matters, it is with some regularity that we encounter project teams where the commercial function is disconnected from the day-to-day reality of what’s actually happening on live projects.

Success, profit, and hard lessons

We all love to bathe in the afterglow of a high quality or distinguished project, once complete, and we often forget many of the challenges those projects have brought us. However, whilst marketing those successes will always be valued, including in procuring subsequent projects and commissions, it will matter a great deal less if the project fails, for whatever reason, and including(arguably the greatest reason) that it makes a profit.

I’ve met few clients who were glad they had to spend significant time, resources and cost in seeking to recover or rescue a project; I’ve met a great many more who wished they had invested something more to protect their position, at the outset.

If anything of the foregoing sounds familiar, or you’d like to discuss how to deal with the symptoms of unwanted gut feelings, or to manage and remove the effects of the usual suspects, then please do get in touch. And as I always say, it doesn’t cost either of us anything to have a five-minute conversation!