You have established that a claimable event has occurred on your project.

You have gathered the evidence and records, completed your delay analysis and/or calculations of the additional payment.

You have decided on the information that you need to include in your claim to establish cause, effect and entitlement.

It’s now time to put all this information in a claim document ready to submit to the employer or engineer. But what’s the best way to do this to ensure your claim is successful?

Here’s 10 top tips to help you write a bullet proof narrative and compile your claim into a solid submission:

1. Make it user-friendly: use clear indexing, organisation and cross reference to substantiated documents.
2. Use direct quotations: quote directly from the records and contract. This is much more effective than paraphrasing and ensures your position is clear.
3. Make the claim a stand-alone document: include everything that the reader may need to verify facts and statements made in the claim.
4. Be concise: do not include superfluous or irrelevant information. Information overload will just confuse the reader. If they are uncertain, they will not be confident in making an award.
5. Do not assume that the reviewer has prior knowledge: write your clam as though you are explaining the matters to an adjudication or arbitration panel two years after the project has ended…not to your opposite number on the project.
6. Lead the reader to a logical conclusion: ensure your claim narrative guides the reader by the hand. Walk them – logically – through all the information they need to establish entitlement to an award.
7. Include explanations throughout the narrative: it is necessary to state the facts from the records in a narrative. However, you should expand on the basic facts and explain what they mean in terms of the claim.
8. Include summaries and conclusions in the narrative: don’t leave things open to interpretation. Summarise the information and state the conclusions that you want to reader to reach. This is especially important if you have longer narratives as it will help to focus the reader.
9. Substantiate facts and statements: by reference to the records and the contract. Include copies of the substantiating documents in the claim.
10. Make it look good: ensure that the presentation of the claim document is attractive and to a professional standard. Use suitable fonts and line and paragraph spacing. Number your paragraphs and include headers and footers to good effect. Keep the whole document consistent.

So, there you have it. If you bear these things in mind when you are compiling your claim, it will help its success and show your professionalism.

If you’re looking to strengthen your claims knowledge and achieve better results on your projects, The Perfect Claim e-course will show you exactly how to prepare, present, and succeed with your claims.