The value of UK construction disputes have fallen by two million (12 per cent) in the past year with the average claim taking just 10.7 months to resolve – the lowest in the world, new figures reveal.
Gary Kitt, head of UK contract solutions at Arcadis, said: “It’s encouraging to see a slight dip both in value and the relative length of UK construction disputes, which indicates a far greater willingness by both parties to compromise before the onset of formal proceedings…means that mediation and party-to-party negotiation is increasingly becoming the preferred method of resolution.
“Effective mechanisms for avoiding disputes need to be employed as early as possible… so we expect the focus on mediation to be a trend that will continue to gain traction in future.”
Over the past few years the necessity for mediation has grown. Whilst not to everyone’s liking the recent article on the Builder and Engineer site shows that mediation has its place.The success of mediation is very much case and party specific. Its quite common for clients to not wish to enter into mediation due to the costs involved, costs which if the mediation is not successful are deemed to have been wasted. The flip side of this contention is that a party can spend a relatively modest amount and have their dispute disposed of at an early stage. In reaching an early agreement the parties can save thousands in legal fees, court costs and most importantly client time. If you have a dispute and wish to arrange a mediation or have been requested to attend a mediation by another party, then we can help. Our commercial litigation team have years of experience and can look to assist in mediation for a competitive fixed fee.
