Ashforte gives contractors a shared senior claims capability across their live projects — identifying entitlement early, capturing records as they arise, and building submissions to a defensible standard. EOT, prolongation, disruption, variations, final account, defence and dispute escalation.
Claims recovery is not decided at submission. It's decided in the twelve to twenty-four months before submission — by which notices were issued, which records were captured, which methodology was chosen, and how consistently discipline held across the project team. Ashforte structures this from the start.
Most standard contract forms impose strict time bars on claim notification and particularization. FIDIC's 28-day and 42-day windows. NEC's 8-week compensation event notification. Bespoke EPC time-bar clauses that operate as absolute waivers. Missing them costs entitlement regardless of the merits — and 'we didn't have time' is not a defence.
A defensible EOT claim needs a defensible programme. A defensible prolongation claim needs defensible time-related cost records. A defensible disruption claim needs a defensible measured mile — which needs baseline productivity records captured before disruption started. Records not built in real time cannot be reconstructed later without severe evidential weakness.
The delay analysis method — Time Impact Analysis, Windows, As-Planned vs As-Built, Impacted As-Planned — is not a neutral technical choice. It's a decision that determines how much delay is attributed to the contractor versus the employer. Choosing the wrong method for the contract and the evidence base weakens even legitimate claims. Choosing the right method requires senior claims judgement early.
Contractors get claimed against as often as they claim — LDs, defective work, delay to the employer, non-conforming submissions. Defending well requires the same record discipline as claiming well, plus a strategic view of the counter-claim landscape. This is where under-prepared contractors haemorrhage margin in the closing stages of a project.
Ashforte's claims & disputes capability is delivered by one senior team working across the contractor's live projects. You get the same standard applied identically — whether the work covers one live project or fifteen — at materially lower cost than staffing the equivalent capability inside every project team.
Recurring workstreams run to Ashforte's standard operating procedures. Senior review sits over every output. Consistency and defensibility are built in, not left to chance.
Most engagements begin at one of these trigger points. If any of them match your situation, the Initial Commercial Risk Assessment is usually the fastest way to establish scope.
The scope below is illustrative — engagements are shaped around the contractor's specific position, project mix and commercial exposure. Any sub-service can be scoped standalone or bundled.
Every claims & disputes engagement produces a defined set of tangible outputs. Consistency of output is one of the reasons contractors move from single-project support to portfolio-wide retainers.
Claims work can be engaged as a single fixed-fee package (one claim, one deliverable), embedded senior support across a live dispute event, or portfolio-wide claims oversight where multiple projects are running claims exposure simultaneously. Where the situation is unclear, the Initial Commercial Risk Assessment is the fastest way to scope.
Engagement models in detailOne claim scope, one fixed fee, one senior-led team. Extension of time, prolongation, disruption, variation package, or final account — assembled to a defensible standard.
Senior claims lead embedded into a live project for a defined period. Real-time entitlement identification, notice discipline, record capture and claim assembly.
Continuous senior claims capability across all live projects — cross-project standards, portfolio exposure reporting, methodology governance.
Support role to legal counsel or expert witness in DAB, DAAB, mediation, arbitration or litigation.
Ashforte typically operates in the claims consultant role — building claims, preparing submissions, drafting rebuttals, and supporting the contractor's legal team where matters escalate. For expert-witness testimony, we work alongside independent experts in a support role, providing the underlying analysis and record base that expert-witness reports rely on. We do not appoint ourselves as independent experts on our own client's claims.
As early as possible. The single highest-value point of intervention is before notices are issued — because notice discipline determines whether the claim survives time-bar scrutiny at all. The second-highest point is during record capture, when baseline productivity, programme actuals and cost data can still be captured in real time. By the time a claim is being assembled retrospectively for submission, most of the leverage has already been lost.
Depending on the contract form, missed notices are not always fatal — some forms carry condition-precedent time bars (harder to overcome), others impose procedural time bars (recoverable in some circumstances), and case law in most jurisdictions has developed positions on late notification. We assess the specific contract, the specific facts, and the specific jurisdiction, then advise on realistic recovery position. What we don't do is pretend a lost time bar isn't lost.
Yes — and often the two run together. LD defence, defective work claims, delay-to-employer allegations and non-conformance disputes all require the same record and analytical discipline as prosecuting contractor claims. Defence work is a significant portion of Ashforte's claims caseload.
Every engagement starts with a scoping conversation to understand the situation, the contractual position and the commercial pressure. For qualified contractors, an initial commercial risk assessment may be offered at no cost as the entry point.
Start the conversationEach of the sub-services below has its own detailed page — what the service is, when it's called for, scope of work, outputs, and how it fits into the wider Ashforte model.
Delay analysis, causation, concurrent delay. TIA, windows, as-planned versus as-built — the right method for the contract and the record.
Site overheads, head office overheads, loss of productivity. Measured mile, Eichleay, industry-accepted methodologies.
Scope change identification, rate build-ups, star rates, cost recovery narratives that survive scrutiny.
Defending against LDs, defending employer claims, counter-claim strategy, without-prejudice positioning.
Final account assembly, close-out negotiations, release strategy, retention recovery.
DAB/DAAB preparation, mediation support, expert witness liaison, arbitration and litigation support roles.