What are Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Boards? Angie Nolet of TransPerfect Legal & Iman Hyder-Eliz of the American Arbitration Association explain here!

In their post titled (wait for it!) Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Boards: A Practical Tool for Keeping Construction Projects Moving While Resolving Issues (available here), Angie & Iman discuss that construction disputes rarely pop up overnight. Usually, they brew slowly: an unanswered request for information, a disputed change order, an unowned schedule impact. But the show must go on—and so must the project. Meanwhile, the dispute percolates, like lava in a caldera. So as the project veers off schedule and racks up costs, parties begin tallying their losses, finger-pointing at others, and dreaming of recoupment. By the time the project ends, their positions are calcified, their umbrage is real, and they’re off to the litigation races.

That is the chain reaction that Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Boards (DARBs) address.

A DARB is a standing neutral Board, established at the project’s nascency, which works with the parties to identify, manage, avoid, and (hopefully) resolve disputes while the work is ongoing. Unlike traditional dispute resolution, which usually begins after substantial completion and with angry, lawyered-up parties, a DARB stays engaged throughout the project via regular meetings, site visits, progress reports, informal discussions, and, when necessary, written recommendations.

So, what meaningful benefits does a DARB provide? How are the Boards formed? And what are the mechanics of a DARB? Find out here, it’s only one click! You may be Board, but you won’t get bored! 😉

So, what do you think? What are you doing to avoid litigation on construction projects? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using Bing Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot working construction on a building”.

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