Peter Hope

ARH614
May 19, 2023

Fee Dispute Negotiation Strategy

Initial Approach:
I suggest mediation as the initial approach to resolving the fee dispute with the client who
does not wish to pay for our initial design services. This project has only been in the preliminary
design phase; therefore, the fees are small. That being said, we must address this lack of payment
because we have a contractual agreement with the client for services rendered, and it would be
poor practice to allow this breach of contract. If we can arrange for voluntary mediation from the
client, we can save both the client and ourselves legal fees. Mediation also is softer than
arbitration and may have a higher chance of encouraging participation from the client.
In this initial approach, we need to notify the client that we would like to enter mediation
with them and request their participation. Assuming that they are willing to enter into mediation
with us, we would then need to hire a mediator through our insurance to facilitate the
proceedings. This should be someone familiar with the construction industry as they will be
familiar with architectural standards of care and contracts. We would then need to provide
whatever information the mediator deemed necessary to resolve the dispute. That would be our
contract with the client, our design documents, any billing documents related to the project, and
any communication between ourselves and the client.
Pending a start date, this would begin a 45-day maximum negotiation between us and the
client, facilitated by the mediator. We need to set a goal of what we would like to receive from
the negotiations before entering into them to have a starting point. We also want to know why he
refuses to pay and if there is some reason in particular that we could address. An amicable
resolution for us would be to recover some of the fees for services rendered, preferably all. Still,
if we cannot resolve this, we may enter into the secondary approach.

Secondary Approach:
If the client refuses to enter into mediation or we cannot come to an amicable decision via
mediation, I suggest that we pursue litigation. In this case, we would need to hire lawyers to see
if we have grounds for a suit based on our contract. If we do, we take him to court and attempt to
recover the fee for services rendered and any legal fees that we have incurred due to his
non-payment.

Conclusion:
In either case, we must engage with the client and exercise our contract. It would be
preferable to do this in private and amicably, but if the client is truly unreasonable, it would
make sense to take this to court in this case.