Legal management of contractual relations in industrial maintenance

When a client entrusts maintenance tasks to service providers, it mobilizes its in-house teams and any project management assistants to draw up the specifications, and to draft and negotiate the contract. Technical, strategic, financial and legal aspects are analyzed in consultation.

On the other hand, once the contractual relationship has been established, project management is usually the responsibility of the operational technical teams, supported by quality professionals, but with little involvement of legal players. Yet this contractual execution phase can be a source of disputes, and a legal framework can help limit them. Moreover, during this phase, various documents are drawn up. It is important to ensure that they comply with legal rules and reflect the reality of the contractual relationship, while protecting the interests of both parties.

Thus, an approach to the legal management of the maintenance contract, in coordination with the technical teams, is presented here as an element of reflection on improving the quality of contractual project management and risk management.