Neutral party is needed to help resolve some partnering disputes.

Partnering agreements, a team building technique that enhances communication and develops a team approach during a construction project, is being increasingly used to improve construction efficiency and reduce project costs.

For both public and private-sector construction projects, partnering ultimately creates mutual trust among the project's stakeholders and encourages respect for each stakeholder's respective role. Partnering, however, does not always preclude the probability that disputes among the project participants will arise, said Donald R. Cruver, president, Eastern Region, of Hill International, Inc., a construction consulting and claims management firm.

Ideally, at the start of a construction project, when stakeholders conduct a partnering workshop to establish mutual goals, consideration is given to preventing construction disputes. This ultimately will contribute to the success of both the partnering agreement and the project itself, Cruver said, by establishing a framework for resolving disputes quickly and amicably and allowing the stakeholders' attention to remain focused on what is most important - the project itself.

An effective way to ensure that the partnering process and the project itself will be successful is to retain a neutral third party at the outset to facilitate dispute resolution.

"A neutral third party, working on behalf of both parties, can provide a necessary, objective analysis of disputes as they arise, as well as provide fact-finding and recommendations for resolution," Cruver explained. "By using a neutral, the parties retain control over the outcome of the dispute, but sill have the advantage of an impartial expert to weed through the often complex issues and help the parties determine who's right, who's wrong, and what needs to be done to resolve their dispute."

Cruver offers the following advice for selecting such a neutral:

The neutral should be an unbiased, impartial third party who is agreed to by both parties and compensated equally by both parties.

The neutral should have both a broad and technical understanding of similar projects, and should be skilled in contractual issues and the dispute resolution process. Ideally, a neutral should be experienced in all avenues for resolving construction disputes - from simple negotiation to litigation.

Decide up-front, before disputes arise, what the neutral's role will be: to manage the dispute process, mediate the dispute, or to render either a non-binding or a binding decision.

Involve the neutral in the project as much as possible, before the dispute arises. This way, the neutral will be able to immediately begin the resolution process when a dispute occurs; his homework is already done.

"Construction disputes are inevitable but, as stakes for the success of construction projects get higher and higher, it's important to keep disputes from erupting into adversarial claims and litigation that, in the long run, only hurt the project," Cruver said. "A neutral who can help the parties deal with their differences during the project can make all the difference."