Category 06
Insights on final accounts
Assembling an account, testing entitlement, negotiation and the route into adjudication.
Settling early versus fighting on
Most disputes settle. The only question is how much is spent before they do, and whether the settlement is better than the one available at the start.
Read 20 Feb 2025When the records are thin, what can still be proved
Every contested account arrives with worse records than either party remembers. The question is what survives.
Read 28 Sep 2023Adjudication, what it is and what it costs
Twenty eight days sounds like a long time until you are the party who has to answer a referral you did not know was coming.
Read 17 Aug 2023Prolongation costs, proving the loss
Prolongation is the most commonly claimed head and one of the most commonly overstated, usually because the wrong period has been used.
Read 28 Apr 2022Global claims and why they usually fail
A global claim is what happens when the records will not support an itemised one. It is a symptom rather than a strategy.
Read 15 Mar 2022Defects, retention and the last five per cent
Retention is the client's last practical leverage. It is also the money most often released by inattention rather than by decision.
Read 27 Jan 2022Testing entitlement before you argue about value
Two parties can spend six months negotiating the value of something one of them was never entitled to claim. It happens constantly.
Read 09 Dec 2021How a final account is actually assembled
Most final accounts are argued rather than assembled. Building one properly takes longer at the start and settles faster at the end.
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