Survey of construction lawyers' attitudes and practice in the use of ADR in contractors' disputes

Abstract

Continuing a survey of contractors' perceptions about alternative dispute resolution (ADR) this paper seeks to report an investigation of the level of involvement of legal advisors to the construction industry in the dispute resolution process and the perceptions that legal professionals have about the use of ADR in construction disputes. The research findings are that contractors are likely to involve lawyers in the dispute resolution procedure, particularly when disputes concern a legal issue, when the parties to the dispute are entrenched in their argument, or when the other party insists on using legal professional assistance. In these defined circumstances, legal advisors will be influential in determining the potential use of ADR. The paper concludes that lawyers are unlikely to recommend ADR for most disputes between contractors, particularly if the dispute resolution process is perceived to involve the use of delay by main contractors, if the parties are fixed in their arguments or if they are exhibiting adversarial behaviour in their approach to the dispute. In these circumstances lawyers and their clients prefer the force of the formal systems over conciliatory ADR procedures.

Keywords:

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Contractors
• Dispute Resolution
• Lawyers