In the construction industry, Global Claims are the practice of many Contractors that submit an overall evaluation of loss / expense / delay under a number of events, without demonstrating direct causality, but rather inferring a global link.

By their nature, Global Claims are more subjective than objective. They often lead to disputes and can be outright rejected by arbitrators and Courts if they don’t show a minimum of qualities. Our new Expert Corner Paper by Thierry Linares, ‘How to Properly Use Global Claims in Disputes‘, explains the key characteristics that can make Global Claims receivable. In essence, while the estimate of the loss can be considered globally, there still needs to be a very clear causality demonstrated for Global Claims to be considered favorably.

While recognizing that Global Claims often form the basis of a negotiation rather than a full-fledged dispute, Contractors should be wary and follow this paper’s key recommendations whenever considering to raise Global Claims.

“A strong and unspoken point of a Global Claim is that it pushes the parties to settle. A Global Claim is sometimes used as this bargaining tool but one has to be careful not to use a Global Claim as a blackmail or ransom tool: inferred causality is not inexistent causality.”

Don’t miss our new Expert Corner paper by Thierry Linares, ‘How to Properly Use Global Claims in Disputes‘!