Barriers to alternative dispute resolution in the construction industry: the Kuwaiti experience

Litigation as a formal way of dispute resolution is time consuming, costly, adversarial and damages,\nif not destroys, relationships and reputations. There are many alternative forms to litigation and\narbitration, also in Kuwait different organisations prepared regulations for different forms of\nalternative dispute resolution. These forms have been rarely used due to cultural difficulties and to\nlack of awareness of these forms of dispute resolution.\nIn addition to exploring the advantages of using the alternative dispute resolution forms with\nconstruction projects disputes, this paper presents the findings of what alternative dispute resolution\nstrategies are currently been implemented by different organisations in Kuwait. These finding are\nreinforced by interviews conducted in Kuwait, with workers in the construction industry, to identify\nthe main reasons, in terms of culture and awareness aspects, for not adopting ADR in construction\ndisputes. The barriers to use mediation are found to be, mainly, lack of awareness and another six\ncultural aspects. However, elimination instruments to the barriers were revealed in this study.