Before you answer a claim for us, how do you check for conflicts of interest?
We check whether we can act from the names of the parties and the project, before you send us any confidential papers about the claim.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
The answer
So where you can, give us those details first. Your first message should name the project, the parties, their roles and any related claims or disputes you know of. Leave out anything confidential to another client. We then check whether our terms and professional rules let us act. If a new party or connection comes up during the work, we raise it under our conflicts procedure and tell you what can be shared. The result may be a limited instruction, extra safeguards or a decision not to act. We cannot promise that every possible conflict can be managed by keeping information apart.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A fit-out subcontractor asks us to test a counterclaim its main contractor has made against it on a hotel refurbishment. A second enquiry later names the same project and the same main contractor.
What happens
- Before any papers about the claim itself are exchanged, the second enquiry is paused and the connection is raised under our conflicts procedure.
- After the check, we may decline or set terms.
- Neither enquirer is told confidential details about the other file.
The outcome
The connection is found before any papers about the claim move, because the names came first. Whether we can act still depends on the check.
To have a claim made against you tested head by head and answered, see our Counterclaim Defence service.