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Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Construction Industry - Dispute Resolution Journal - Vol. 52, No. 3

Author(s): 
James P. Groton
Page Count: 
10 pages
Published: 
August, 1997
Jurisdictions: 
United States
Practice Areas: 
Construction
Author Detail: 

The author is one of the senior partners of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, and heads that firm’s ADR practice. His principal areas of law practice involve ADR, problem solving and litigation, especially in the construction industry. He is a long-time panelist and a member of the board of directors of the American Arbitration Association and is a past recipient of the Whitney North Seymour Medal for outstanding contributions to the responsible use of ADR. This article has been excerpted and reprinted with permission from the chapter entitled “The Progressive or ‘Stepped’ Approach to ADR: Designing Systems to Prevent, Control, and Resolve Disputes,” by James P. Groton. It appears in the Construction Resolution Formbook, copyright 1997, by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., available from Wiley Law Publications, Colorado Springs, Colorado. To order, call 1-800-879-4539.

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Description: 

Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

The term “ADR” has moved far beyond its original use as referring to arbitration and mediation, the traditional dispute resolution “alternatives” to the formal judicial process. Within the last several years the scope of ADR has broadened to cover a vast array of techniques that have been developed not only to resolve existing disputes, but also to control, minimize and even prevent disputes. These techniques can be used selectively in a variety of ways to fit a multitude of relationships and business situations, particularly in the construction industry. Beyond the mere resolution of disputes, these ADR systems actually change attitudes and behavior so that further disputes are prevented or their impact minimized.

The Construction Industry Institute (CII) has concluded that “the U.S. construction industry is ill,” and has complained that “litigation related to design and construction continues to increase.” Engineering-News Record, the weekly magazine of the construction industry, has editorially lamented "the awful litigious nature of this industry."