Damages detached from the analysis
What supports the period and resource assumptions used in the cost analysis?
Expert witness
Delay Damages
Delay-related cost analysis examines claimed time-related costs and their relationship to construction events and conditions. Sources, assumptions and the scope of the inquiry vary with the project record.
Delay-related cost questions may involve time-related resources, overhead, escalation, acceleration and other categories. Analysts may examine recorded costs, contributing conditions, administrative records and assumptions; schedule and cost work may proceed together or in stages.
Damages analysis may examine attribution, periods, cost categories, assumptions and whether delays were concurrent on the critical path. How concurrent delay is treated depends on the contract and applicable law, which are for counsel and the tribunal. The scope and available information affect which questions can be evaluated.
Possible assignment considerations
In practice
- 01
Explain the event and period assumptions
Identify the events or periods assumed in the cost analysis and explain their support. Alternative scenarios can be evaluated while time effects remain disputed.
- 02
Identify time-related cost
Separate resources incurred because of duration from the cost of performing the work itself.
- 03
Address overhead openly
Set out the basis and assumptions behind any home office overhead element rather than embedding them in a calculation.
- 04
Deal with mitigation and contribution
Account for costs that would have arisen anyway, that reasonable steps would have avoided, or that the claiming party caused.
Considerations and limitations
Questions and limitations to consider
Overhead as arithmetic
Presenting a formula result without exposing the assumptions underneath it.
Ignoring the claimant's own contribution
Leaving contribution and mitigation to be raised by the other side, which damages the credibility of the whole.
Delay Damages
Talk to a consultant
Also in this practice
Consulting Expert Witness Opinions & Testimony
- DelayTechnical opinions on delay events, schedule effects and related contract administration.
- DisruptionTechnical opinions on productivity effects, including effects without a change in the completion date.
- TerminationOpinion on the circumstances and consequences of a termination.
- EstimatingTechnical estimating analysis addressing scope, quantities, pricing and assumptions.
- RepairOpinion on repair scope, method and cost to restore what was damaged or defective.
- Completion CostsTechnical analysis of remaining work and construction completion costs.
- Estimating
- Repair
- Completion Costs
- Construction DefectsOpinion on the existence, cause and cost of remedy of alleged defects.
- Construction Industry StandardsConstruction-practice opinions grounded in the project facts and records.
- Construction Contract AdministrationOpinions on day-to-day administration of contracts and subcontracts from a contractor project manager’s perspective.
- Contractor, Owner & Subcontractor Damages CalculationsDamages quantification for different roles in the contractual chain.
- Forensic Construction AccountingTracing claimed cost back through the books to what was actually spent.
- Property Damage Expert OpinionsOpinion on first-party windstorm, hurricane and water losses: scope, repair and cost.