Dispute Classification in Construction Projects Based on Litigation Cases

Abstract

Disputes in construction projects arise due to failure to address their root causes and lack of procedures for dispute avoidance and mitigation. Courts are facing a growing number of construction-related lawsuits that hinder the resolution processes with negative impact on the project completion. This study was an attempt to define major causes of disputes in construction projects from a review of 177 selected litigation cases in the Kuwaiti courts. Dispute sources in construction were classified into four categories: abnormal conditions, financial situation, project delay, and project management. Statistical analysis was conducted to rank the severity of dispute sources. For verification of results, construction experts were interviewed. A regression model was used to predict the disputed claim value. The most severe dispute sources were ranked according to the following: payment delay, contract documents (incomplete information, conflict of interest in both parties, noncompliance, unawareness), main contractor time delay, and owner time delay. It is hoped that results open avenues to a clearer understanding of the causes of disputes in contractual agreements in the construction industry, as well as identify areas to mitigate dispute occurrences. Because the scope of the research was limited to Kuwait, findings of this investigation may lead to a more in-depth investigation of other court scenarios of similar nature from the other parts of the Gulf region.