Why We Are Different

why we are differentThere are construction lawyers, and there are quantity surveyors who help out with claims and adjudications. Our aim is to combine the two, so that you have one point of contact, and one bill, for all your needs arising from claims / payment / defects / contract advice / disputes.

CDR’s Managing Director, Simon Lee, has ample experience of surveying issues and legal issues, and marries the two together to offer a service which will bridge the gap between, and replace your need for, surveyors and lawyers.

In short, we tell it like it is. We give the right advice – it may not be what you want to hear, but it will be good advice. We also set out to be as direct as possible – we will not waste your time and money on expensive and ill-conceived claims and side-arguments.

We also try to act immediately wherever possible, by having a small but dedicated team ready to react to your call, fax or email. CDR recognises that getting the right result is so often about applying pressure, through quick responses, providing and presenting information, following up threats and driving a claim or dispute to its conclusion.

CDR’s ethos is to resolve disputes quickly and cheaply, because that guarantees the highest level of Client satisfaction, and repeat work and recommendations. We are not interested in ‘using’ a Client for fee income, not caring whether or not they ever come back. In fact, Simon Lee says “if I am involved in a dispute for some time and it is not resolved, but needs to be referred to adjudication or arbitration, I feel as if I have failed in some way. This can happen because advisors on the other side do not actually want to resolve the dispute: they want it to continue to generate fees. The challenge is then to make sure the dispute process works to the benefit of my client, rather than as fee generation for the advisors involved.”

iStock_000003820113XSmallWe acknowledge that in some cases, adjudication and arbitration is needed, and needed quickly, and in those cases, we can identify this immediately, and act. ‘Fee clocking’ – the ability to rack up fees and write costly letters and pleadings irrespective of what is best for the client – is rife, and if you have ever been involved in a litigation, arbitration, or even an adjudication, you may well have seen it first-hand. We endeavour to tackle ‘fee clocking’ head on, and with the assistance of adjudicators and arbitrators, have secured favourable costs awards in the majority of cases.

You may or may not be aware that many law firms and claims consultants place obligations on their staff to produce fee income – ‘fee targets’. That could mean that when you meet them for advice, they have one eye on what you need, and one eye on what fees they need to generate to meet that month’s ‘target’.

We have no fee targets – in fact, as the two owners of CDR are also the two directors and the full time workforce, what you see is what you get. Rest assured however that we use a wide network of extremely well-regarded associates in specialist areas of the law and of different sectors of the construction industry to ensure a top class service and the best advice at all times.

Please have a look at what our Clients say about us.

You may also be interested in Case Studies which give some examples of what we do, how we work, and the results we can get for you.

We actively support our chosen charities.