2018 RANK

OVERALL DISPUTE CAUSE

2017 RANK

1

Owner/Contractor/Subcontractor failing to understand and/or comply with its contractual obligations

3

2

Errors and/or omissions in the contract document

2

3

Failure to properly administer the contract

1

The highest value dispute handled by the team in 2018 was worth $ 2 billion (US)

Owner/Contractor/Subcontractors' failure to understand and/or comply with contractual obligations became the top cause of construction disputes for 2018, up from its spot as the third cause for the past two years. This emphasizes a continued need to bring on experienced industry advisors early in the process, and to work toward identifying the human factors that can lead to miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Globally, the buildings (education, healthcare, retail/commercial, government) sector saw the most disputes, a relatively new trend compared with previous years.