Construction Project Legal Advice

Once a contract is signed, your legal position continues to take shape: in the instructions your team gives, the notices it serves, the records it keeps and the way it responds when the project changes. Decisions taken, or missed, in the third week of a project can decide the outcome of a claim in its third year.

C&IDS places experienced construction counsel within your business, working alongside your commercial and project teams while the work is under way. Your lawyer deals with the questions that arise day to day: whether an instruction is a variation, whether a notice has been properly served, whether an extension of time is supportable, and how a contentious letter should be worded before it is sent.

For example, a site team may act on a verbal instruction to keep the works moving. Before the cost is incurred, you need to know whether the contract requires that instruction in writing, who has authority to give it and what notice preserves your entitlement. A short conversation at that point can protect a claim that would otherwise be lost.

What Your Lawyer Does During Delivery

• Reviews notices, instructions and correspondence, so that the contractual procedure is followed

• Assesses emerging issues early, to establish your exposure and the action required

• Advises on variations and extensions of time: entitlement, valuation and the notices needed to preserve them

• Works alongside your commercial and project teams, and carries the file forward if an issue becomes a claim or a dispute