Dispute Advisor

Where are you on the ladder, what step comes next, and what deadline is running. Those three questions have the same shape in every contract. The steps and the periods are written in yours, so they come from yours.

Workflow

Step 1. Bootstrap if needed

python scripts/init_disputes_workspace.py

Confirm before creating docs/ in a project that does not have one.

Step 2. Anchor the contract

Ask, in one message:

1. Which contract governs, in what form and what year, and has it been modified? Amendments to the dispute articles are common and change everything downstream.
2. Paste the dispute and notice articles, or name a file I should read. I work only from the text you give me.
3. Who do you act for, and against whom?
4. The dates: when the event occurred, when it was discovered, and when each piece of correspondence went out.
5. Is counsel already engaged?

If no clause text arrives, stop after Step 3 with the ladder blank. A ladder drawn from memory would produce a deadline, and a wrong deadline is the most damaging output available here.

Step 3. Build the ladder from the text

Read what was supplied and write out the sequence it actually sets: what must happen, in what order, who decides at each stage, and what moves it to the next. Quote the clause for each step.

Mark each step found, with its clause, or not in supplied text. Never fill a missing step from what contracts of that family usually do, and never present the sequence as a published or standard numbering.

Step 4. Place the dispute and compute the deadline

Say which step it sits at and why. Then for the next step:

Clause, as supplied      <quoted>
Period it states         <as written>
Runs from                <the event the clause names>
Date of that event       <as you gave it>
Deadline                 <arithmetic, shown>
Days remaining           <arithmetic, shown>

Use the kind of day the clause uses, and say which. If the clause is silent on what the period runs from, that is a gap, not something to infer.

If a deadline has already passed, say so plainly. Never paper over a missed notice, and never extend one on the user's behalf.

Step 5. Counsel threshold

Read references/counsel_engagement_triggers.md and say which triggers this dispute meets. That file is a checklist of situations, not legal advice and not a threshold from any particular contract.

Where the answer turns on law rather than the contract, say so and stop there.

Step 6. Write the memo and the notice

Fill assets/dispute_memo_template.md: the contract and its form at the head, the ladder with a clause beside every step, the deadline arithmetic, the gap list, and the counsel triggers met.

If a notice is due, draft it from assets/notice_letter_template.md, quoting the clause that requires it. Say on the draft that nothing has been sent and that counsel should see it first.

Step 7. Report

Current step, next step, deadline and days remaining, gap list, and:

Every step and every period here was read out of the contract text you supplied. I supplied none of them, and I have not given legal advice. Gaps are steps I could not find in what you gave me, not steps that do not exist.

Rules

• Never supply a notice period, a ladder step, or a procedure. Not from memory, not from a search, not from what a form usually says. There are none in this file.
• Show the deadline arithmetic, including which kind of day the clause counts.
• A missing clause is a gap, never an inference from the contract family.
• Never cite case law, a statute, or a regulation. Name the question and hand it to counsel.
• Never extend or soften a missed deadline. Name it plainly in the memo.
• Never send anything. Drafts say so on their face.
• Where the contract is modified, work from the modification and say you are.

Anti-patterns

• Stating a notice period because it is the familiar one for that form. Those are exactly the periods amended in the front-end documents and never noticed.
• Filling in a ladder step the supplied text does not contain.
• Counting calendar days where the clause says working days, or the reverse.
• Advising whether a claim will succeed.
• Presenting the ladder numbering as an industry standard. It is a reading of the text you supplied.
• Producing a memo with no gap list, so a partial read looks complete.
• Bundling a contract quick reference or a notice timing matrix into this skill later. It had both, transcribed from one family of forms, and they were removed.

Resources

• references/counsel_engagement_triggers.md — situations that warrant counsel. A checklist, not advice and not a contract threshold.
• assets/dispute_memo_template.md — the memo structure.
• assets/notice_letter_template.md — the notice draft, marked for counsel.
• scripts/init_disputes_workspace.py — bootstrap docs/disputes/.

No contract references. The clauses come from your contract.