For building industry players who are engaged in multiple construction claims (builders, general contractors, larger trade contractors, suppliers, material and product manufacturers, insurance companies, attorneys) each case can be considered a single battle in a larger war. Deciding how much to spend on each claim – each battle – is hard. How do these expensive decisions get evaluated? Although it should not be guesswork, it often is. PFCS has created a structured process for making these complicated, difficult, strategically important, return-on-investment (ROI) decisions.
PFCS will show you a method for managing your portfolio of construction claims, helping you develop a process for evaluating the costs of various scenarios in construction claim handling. At any point in any case, whether you’ve spent $1.00 or $3 million, you can ask and answer, or at least estimate, these key questions: How much has been spent so far? How much will it cost to get out now? What is a small fight worth? A big fight? What might trial costs look like, and is it worth the risk? As anyone familiar with litigation knows, each of these questions is likely to have best-likely-worst case answers.
The cheapest option is sometimes to get out of the case early, after only the most preliminary analysis. But claims run the gamut, so sometimes a long, expensive fight is the cheapest, best solution, especially if a good outcome will influence other cases.
Key System Components
Claims Management Plan: Brief strategy and tactical document including written objective, executive summary, litigation budget, written agreements with attorney and other vendors, a timeline, and a Claims Plan Manager job description.
Company Level Analysis: Worksheet that is a master list of all cases with best-likely-worst case scenario figures and a strategy summary for each. This includes a summary of all the individual Project Level Analysis worksheets.
Project Level Analysis: Worksheets for each case including best-likely-worst case figures for Attorneys, Experts, Other and Settlement/Judgment costs at various levels of litigation including immediate settlement, a small fight, a big fight and through trial. This includes a summary of the Vendor Scope-Budget Matrix worksheets, plus a settlement hypothesis.
Vendor Scope-Budget Matrix: This is an individual budget from each vendor on each project broken down to conform with the Project Level and Company Level Analysis worksheets.
Meeting Agenda / Minutes: Structure for preparing for, reviewing and updating the analysis periodically.
PFCS will soon host a conversation about portfolio management where your experience, concerns and general feedback will be welcomed. Stay tuned.
If you would like a sample proposal with supporting documents call us or email Pete Fowler at pf@petefowler.com.
