Project Neutral®

Construction disputes, resolved on the project’s clock.

For owners, contractors, and counsel facing significant disputes on active projects: a senior, independent Early Neutral Evaluation delivering a written, mediation‑privileged assessment — with practical recommendations and draft change‑order language — in 21 days.

Discuss a Project How the 21-day method works

Why timing decides

A construction claim is a project-delivery event, not a legal event.

It has a schedule impact, a cost impact, and a set of working relationships attached to it — and the project still has to be built while it is resolved. Traditional paths treat the claim as a legal event to be adjudicated after the fact. We treat it as a delivery event to be resolved in real time.

21 days From engagement to a written, privileged evaluation. The Project Neutral® schedule

1 in 4 Construction projects has a claim; serious disputes arise on 10–30% of all projects. National Academies, Reducing Construction Costs (2007)

<1% Of federal civil cases are decided at trial. The question is not whether to negotiate — it’s when. Admin. Office of the U.S. Courts, Table C-4

When to engage

Engage before positions harden.

01

A dispute in motion

Change orders accumulating. Schedule slipping. Payment friction. Correspondence turning formal. The 21-day evaluation is built for exactly this moment.

The 21-day ENE →

02

A complex project ahead

Multiple primes, novel delivery methods, agency interfaces, aggressive schedules. Early neutral engagement addresses issues when resolution costs least.

Engagement options →

03

A project in trouble

Major delay or disruption, a stalled recovery, disputes multiplying faster than they resolve. An independent evaluation restores a common set of facts.

Recovery & targeted engagements →

The facts of your dispute won’t change. The cost of resolving it will.

Why parties trust it

Senior, independent, and safe to be candid with.

Senior-executive review

Evaluations are performed by senior construction professionals, not delegated downward. The practice is led by Ernest C. Brown, Esq., P.E. — MIT- and Berkeley-trained, with more than 3,000 disputes resolved over a 30-year career.

Our expertise →

Independence

The Neutral is engaged to evaluate, not to advocate. Conflict checks precede every engagement, and the evaluation goes where the record goes.

The privilege framework

All communications operate within mediation-privilege and settlement-communication protections — confidential, non-attributable, structured so nothing prejudices a later proceeding.

Experience

Where the method has worked

Oroville Dam Spillway Reconstruction

A safety-requirements dispute on the ~$1.1B emergency reconstruction, resolved through structured, privileged negotiation — without a formal claims process.

Pure Water San Diego

Standing dispute-board roles across a multi-segment pipeline program — real-time, contract-grounded resolution while construction proceeds.

Presidio Parkway

Multi-agency alignment and early issue resolution on California’s first transportation P3, through the Presidio of San Francisco.