Progression Analysis of the EJCDC’s Underlying Claim and Dispute Resolution Mechanism

Abstract

Direct negotiation is the most common approach used for cost-effective resolution of construction claims and disputes. From among the several available standard conditions of contract, those issued by the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC) call for a direct review and resolution process to be initiated immediately following the submission of a claim and supporting data by the claimant. To this effect, this paper tackles the examination of the claim process evolution under these conditions, starting with this rather long, time-barred stipulation. The used methodology relied on presenting the overall claim and dispute timeline then dissecting it in accordance with the possibilities prevailing at each of the timeline stages and their corresponding gates. Four different scenarios were identified, and their analysis revealed interesting observations along a number of characteristics. These mainly include: (1) the placement of the project owner at the forefront in deciding on actions pertaining to a contractor’s submitted claims; (2) the staging of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution means early on in the timeline as an intermittent step that can possibly be taken in lieu of, and having the effect of suspending, the direct negotiation step; and (3) the advantage given to the action by the opposing party, on one hand, and to the denial of claim by the claimant, on the other hand, in triggering expeditious closure of or in moving forward with a case on hand, respectively.