Timeline Construction
ForensicHourlyFor Claims Consultants & Consultancies
I build the chronology of your dispute from the correspondence and records: every material event dated, stated as fact and cited to its source. What the events mean for the case stays with you; where they are written down becomes settled ground.
The problem
Every dispute runs on a story, and the story's facts live in thousands of documents nobody has read end to end: the project inbox, the diaries, the minutes, the photos. Each fee-earner rebuilds the fragment of the timeline their workstream needs, the fragments disagree, and the submission's dates end up asserted from memory under deadline. The other side reads for exactly that, so one event out of sequence or one date the file contradicts and the tribunal starts checking everything else. A case whose own documents disagree with its narrative spends its credibility on repairs it never needed to make.
The solution
I read the record end to end and build the chronology beneath the case: every material event dated, described as fact rather than argument, and cited to its document, with both versions cited where the record disagrees with itself. One spine, built once, that the narrative, the quantum and any delay analysis all draw from. The boundary is deliberate: I fix what happened and where it is written down, while what the events mean, for entitlement, for extension of time, for money, stays with you and whoever argues it.
What you receive
The case gets one spine instead of several private timelines: every material event dated, cited and checkable, delivered in your format and built to be extended as the dispute moves. The narrative, the quantum and any delay analysis your side runs all draw from the same settled ground, and the analysis stays yours.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: the timetable is agreed in writing at scoping and then kept.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me what the case turns on
One call on the issues, the period and the parties, so the reading goes deepest where the dispute actually lives.
Scope Fixed Before Reading
The period, subject and entry rules are confirmed with you in writing before the reading starts, so the chronology serves the case rather than the archive.
I clear conflicts and scope the work
I check parties and projects against my other engagements before I open a file, then confirm the issues, period and format with you in writing.
You send me the paperwork
You send everything below as it stands; the chronology is only as strong as the record it is read from.
- A
Correspondence for the period
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to build the chronology from, so most of the exercise cannot run
Where to find it: The project inbox and sent items; search the other side's contacts and forward what comes back
Why I need it: The chronology is built from documents and nothing else
Quality: a native export with dates, times and recipients intact.
- B
The executed contract and every amendment
EssentialWithout it: The key dates tab cannot be built, so no entry carries the clause that gives it consequence, and the work cannot flag a range that crosses a contractually significant date
Where to find it: The commission's commercial folder, the order or appointment email, or your contracts administrator
Why I need it: The review marks each key date with the clause that attaches a period to it, and that clause number can only be read off the executed document rather than the standard form
- C
Site records
ImportantWithout it: The period is entered as having no site record at all, even where one may simply not have been sent
Where to find it: The site office files, the team's phones and the handover folders
Why I need it: What fixes what happened and when
- D
Minutes
ImportantWithout it: Events known only through a later reference to a meeting are entered as a date range rather than a fixed date
Where to find it: The site office files, the team's phones and the handover folders
Why I need it: What the parties recorded at the time
Quality: the notice with the transmitting email or the recorded delivery receipt.
- E
Notices, with proof of service
ImportantWithout it: Notices are dated by when they were written rather than when they were served, and the notice register cannot be fully reconciled
Where to find it: The notice itself along with whatever proves when it was served: the transmitting email, a recorded delivery receipt, or the sent items showing the send
Why I need it: Every entry needs a source or it is not evidence
- F
The variation register, the notice register and the account
ImportantWithout it: The chronology cannot be reconciled against the project registers, so that check cannot identify missing instructions, unregistered notices or undated account lines.
Where to find it: The commercial team's own running files: the variation or change register, the notice register, and the latest submitted or agreed account
Why I need it: The review reconciles the chronology against all three, and a difference between a register and the documents is a finding in its own right
- G
Every date they rely on, with its source
OptionalWithout it: There is nothing to cross-check the chronology against, so any difference between your account and the documents goes unnoticed
Where to find it: Not a single document: whatever list, spreadsheet or note your team already keeps of the key dates, with where each one came from
Why I need it: An entry without a source is not evidence
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I read the record end to end
I read the correspondence, diaries, minutes and photos, document by document, logging each material event with its date, its actors and its source.
I build the chronology
I date every entry, state it as fact and cite it to its document; where the record disagrees with itself, both versions sit in the entry rather than the conflict being smoothed over.
Every Entry Sourced
Nothing leaves until every entry cites its document and every conflict shows both accounts, so no date in your case can be contradicted by your own file.
You argue the case from it
The chronology lands cited entry by entry; what each event means for entitlement, time or money is your argument to make, on ground the documents have already settled.
I hand over the spine, every event checkable
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.