FIDIC Contracts, Variation Orders, Claims and Project Disputes
Construction & FIDIC Contracts
Specialist legal work on construction and contracting projects and FIDIC contracts, tying the legal analysis to the technical, programme and financial reality of the project.
/ The Practice
We provide specialist legal work on construction and contracting projects and FIDIC contracts, tying the legal analysis to the technical, programme and financial reality of the project. We protect the contractual rights, manage claims before they turn into a dispute, and strengthen the position in negotiation or arbitration.
/ Practice Area Details
Scope: Handled by the construction and FIDIC team, with the corporate and governance team joining where the project touches a transaction or a financing structure.
Serves: Contractors and subcontractors, employers and owners, developers and financiers
Focus: Interpreting FIDIC clauses, variation orders, drafting contracts, financial claims, delay damages, defective works, additional works, settling disputes and arbitration, and payment certificates.
Engagement: Reading the contract, documenting, claiming, negotiating, arbitrating.
Enquiries: View the Profile
/ The Reading
“The employer's consultant has held up my payment certificate. What now?” Correspondence alone will not settle this; the contract, the programme and the execution records are what prove entitlement and turn a claim from a disagreement into a debt that can be collected.
/ Scope of Services
Interpreting FIDIC Clauses
We analyse the clauses of FIDIC contracts and set out the rights and obligations of the parties and the effect of the contractual wording on the project.
We help the client take the right decision when a difference arises over interpreting the contract or applying one of its clauses.
Handling Variation Orders
We advise on variation orders in terms of their scope, their effect on time and cost, and the procedures for approving them.
We help the contractor or the employer document the variation and protect the right to claim the cost or the extension.
Drafting and Reviewing Contracts
We draft and review construction contracts and the agreements attached to projects, with attention to the allocation of risk and obligations and the mechanisms for variation, payment, delay and termination.
We address the risk before a dispute arises rather than after it has.
Financial Claims for the Contractor or the Employer
We analyse financial claims and establish their contractual basis and the documents that support them.
We help prepare the claim, defend it and negotiate it, including claims tied to variation, delay and additional cost.
Enforcing Delay Damages
We advise on the conditions and effects of delay damages, whether they are due, and the scope for challenging them.
We review the facts, the programme and the parties' obligations to establish each party's legal position.
Defective Works Claims
We handle disputes over defective execution or work that does not conform to the specification and the contract.
We work to establish the contractual obligation, the liability, the loss and the steps required to remedy or compensate.
Additional Works Claims
We help contractors establish entitlement to the value of work beyond the scope of the contract, and we defend employers against claims that are not due.
We focus on proving the instruction, the variation, the execution, the value and the entitlement.
Settling Project Disputes
We manage project disputes through negotiation, settlement and mediation, or through arbitration and litigation according to the nature of the dispute.
We aim at the most efficient resolution while preserving the client's rights, documents and contractual position.
Arbitration Under the Contract
We represent parties in arbitration on construction and contracting projects, from preparing the claims and the defence to managing the procedure and presenting evidence and submissions.
We tie the legal strategy to the technical documents, the programme and the financial accounts of the project.
Compensation for Breach of Contract
We advise and represent on claims arising from breach of contract, and establish the basis of liability, the loss and the compensation due.
We build a file tying the breach, the loss, the causal link and the value of the compensation together.
Payment Certificate and Retention Claims
We handle disputes over payment certificates, sums due, retained funds and delay in payment.
We review the documents and the contractual stages and build the claim or the defence in a way that supports recovering what is owed.
/ Method
We read the contract, the programme and the execution records together, then establish the basis of the claim or the defence and the documents that carry it. then address what needs amendment or completion.
/ What We Focus On
The contract and the programme together
We read the contractual wording alongside the programme and the execution records, because a claim is not proven by either one on its own.
Documented as it happens
We help the client document variation, delay and additional work as they occur, rather than once a dispute already exists.
Before it becomes a dispute
We manage the claim early so it can be settled where it arose; arbitration is a route we take when it is needed, not a first choice.
