What does a construction dispute cost a contractor?
A construction dispute is a claim that became a case: a variation, delay or defect the two sides could not settle, argued through adjudication, mediation or arbitration. Most are decided by the record, which is why the week with no site diary is so often the week that loses one.
How it shows up on a job
It went to a lawyer, and the record for that week is empty.
- A variation is disputed and the site record for that week is thin.
- Day works were done without a signed docket.
- An RFI answer changed the scope, and nobody priced it at the time.
What it costs
Party costs, meaning your own lawyers, experts and witnesses, are 83% of what an arbitration costs on average. They are spent whether you win or lose.
Source: ICC, Decisions on Costs in International Arbitration, 2015, p.5Queensland adjudicators released 214 decisions in 2024-25 on claims totalling A$957.0 million, and awarded A$81.9 million: about 8.6 cents in the dollar. One A$634 million claim skews that ratio a long way down.
Source: QBCC Annual Report 2024-25, table 23North American construction disputes took 12.5 months to resolve on average: a year of management time that appears on no invoice.
Source: Arcadis, Construction Disputes in Motion, 2025
What we don't know. No verified figure exists for what a dispute costs a contractor as a share of contract value, start to finish. The evidence comes mostly from large projects that were already in trouble.
Every figure, worked through one $5 million job: what the five diseases cost a $5 million job. The full evidence, with every caveat: why the diseases are in this order.
How Demiton catches disputes
If the day's record isn't in by evening, you're told which one is missing while people still remember the day.
Your systems stay where they are. Demiton reads them into registers, and these are the ones that watch for disputes:
The cures roll out one disease at a time, starting with lapsed compliance. Until each is live, the facts it runs on land in your registers, one question away in Claude or ChatGPT.
Common questions
How much does disputes cost?
Party costs, meaning your own lawyers, experts and witnesses, are 83% of what an arbitration costs on average. They are spent whether you win or lose. No verified figure exists for what a dispute costs a contractor as a share of contract value, start to finish. The evidence comes mostly from large projects that were already in trouble.
How does Demiton catch disputes?
If the day's record isn't in by evening, you're told which one is missing while people still remember the day. It reads the systems you already run, so nothing is replaced.