Role of Standard Contracts in Mitigating Disputes in Construction
Publication: Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 15, Issue 1
Abstract
Disputes are described as an epidemic of the construction industry because they slow construction or even stop a project completely for a period of time, leading to a breakdown of business relationships, delayed project times, and inflated costs. The most common kind of disputes are contractual based. The need for contractual clarity is immense when there are many different contracts being drafted by different companies. Most common causes of disputes in construction and to what extent the standard forms assist in mitigating disputes in Australia is not well studied and is addressed in this study. The research method involved review of a sample of legal cases that were caused by construction contractual disputes. Accordingly, 10 cases were analyzed, with some using standard forms of contracts and some using customized contracts. The findings revealed that time and cost overruns were the most common cause of construction disputes. The research further reviewed specific terms and clauses that relate to time and cost in the standard forms and found both local and international contracts assist to mitigate disputes when the contracts are managed as agreed by parties. This research offers useful implications to mitigate contractual disputes in construction and suggest further to consider new technologies such as blockchain and smart contract. Further research can extend to explore more contexts and other forms of contracts.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction
Volume 15 • Issue 1 • February 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 6, 2022
Accepted: Aug 18, 2022
Published online: Nov 2, 2022
Published in print: Feb 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Apr 2, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Building codes
- Business management
- Commercial construction
- Construction costs
- Construction engineering
- Construction industry
- Construction management
- Construction methods
- Contracts and subcontracts
- Dispute resolution
- Legal affairs
- Mitigation and remediation
- Practice and Profession
- Project management
- Standards and codes
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