Overall principles
Some principles have to be kept in mind when claims shall be described and submitted to the Danish Arbitration Board, including a claim to EoT entitlement. Besides the overall strategy all claims must be documented and described with clarity and simplicity. As contractors we must in a clear and simple way explain to the judges that we are entitled to extension of time and payment for costs related to delays. Furthermore, we have to be fair in pricing and estimation of the claims so we appear credible and not greedy.
In order to increase the credibility of the clients claims, when submitting a claim to the Arbitration Board, the claim should be presented in chronological order from the origin point of the claim i.e., what was the baseline/original agreement/plan and how was it impacted/changed/delayed, ending with the incurred cost.
As an example, an acceleration claim should be presented as:
John was hired to complete the task on the 25th of October, beginning the work on the 15th of October.
John did not gain access to the building before the 21st of October, due to a delay caused by another contractor, for whom the Employer was responsible for.
In order to avoid delays, John hired Jane to assist him with performing the task.
With the assistance of Jane, the task was completed on time.
Due to hiring Jane, John incurred an additional cost of EUR 1.000.
Conversely, claims are often presented backwards, starting with the extra cost incurred, which in practice significantly damages the credibility of the claim. Using the previous example, the claim presented backwards would be:
John has incurred an additional cost of EUR 1.000 after completing the task.
The additional cost was due to hiring Jane.
John had to hire Jane to complete the task on time
John was supposed to begin the work on the 15th of October.
John did not gain access to the building before the 21st of October, due to a delay caused by another contractor.
When presented backwards, the claim is less coherent and is often (wrongfully) construed as a post-rationalization of the claim by the Arbitration Board.