Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Global claim definition

What does Global claim mean? A global claim (also called a total cost or composite claim) describes how a contractor presents a construction claim where several employer-risk events are said to have combined to cause delay and/or financial loss, and the contractor quantifies the overall impact without attributing a specific amount of loss or period of delay to each individual event. It is not a statutory term; its treatment derives from case law across England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, where the approach is broadly consistent: such claims are not automatically inadmissible, but they are closely scrutinised. Key features and...

Global claims for delay and disruption in construction: principles, evidential burdens, and defence strategies after Walter Lilly v Mackay and under the SCL Protocol

Published by a LexisNexis Construction expert

Practice notes

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What is a Global claim?

As schemes grow in scope, technical intricacy and cost, claims tend to increase as well. These factors, among others, make straightforward claims harder to present; when there are multiple breaches of contract and other matters, their consequences can be tangled, overlapping and intensified. Put simply, a global claim arises where a contractor has suffered loss due to two or more employer‑risk events but is unable, or unwilling, to pinpoint the loss or delay attributable to each separate event. As a result, a single claim is pursued for all losses stemming from the various events. It is also worth noting that global claims are sometimes described in commentary as ‘total cost’, ‘cumulative effect’ or ‘cumulative impact’, ‘composite’ and/or ‘rolled‑up’ claims. In truth, these are variants of global claims and refer to the way the claim is framed:

total cost claims usually refer to the entirety of the work under the contract in question...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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