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Two-layered fuzzy logic-based model for predicting court decisions in construction contract disputes

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Abstract

The dynamic nature and increasing complexity of the construction industry have led to increased conflicts in construction projects. An accurate prediction of the outcome of a dispute resolution in courts could effectively reduce the number of disputes that would otherwise conclude by spending more money through litigation. This study aims to introduce a two-layered fuzzy logic model for predicting court decisions in construction contract disputes. 100 cases of construction contract disputes are selected from the courts of Iran. A questionnaire survey is then conducted to extract a set of fuzzy rules for identifying important decision parameters and expert knowledge. Accordingly, a two-layered fuzzy logic-based decision-making architecture is proposed for the prediction model. Furthermore, the fuzzy system is trained based on 10-fold cross-validation. Analysis of results indicates that 51 out of the 100 cases are filed after the dissolution and termination of the contract show a significant impact of these clauses as the root cause in construction contract disputes. Our results present a proposed hierarchical fuzzy system that can correctly predict nearly 60% of the test data. Also, we demonstrate a methodology of using argument before ML to establish interpretable AI models. Based on our findings, a fuzzy model with a hierarchical structure may be used as a simple and efficient method for predicting court decisions in construction contract disputes.

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Data availability statement

Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant funding agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Navid Bagherian-Marandi

  2. Center of Excellence on Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Processing, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Mehdi Ravanshadnia & Mohammad-R. Akbarzadeh-T

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  1. Navid Bagherian-Marandi
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  2. Mehdi Ravanshadnia
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  3. Mohammad-R. Akbarzadeh-T
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Correspondence to Mehdi Ravanshadnia.

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Bagherian-Marandi, N., Ravanshadnia, M. & Akbarzadeh-T, MR. Two-layered fuzzy logic-based model for predicting court decisions in construction contract disputes. Artif Intell Law 29, 453–484 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-021-09281-9

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