A new paradigm is presented for assessing the stability posture of a general class of linear time invariant-neutral time delayed systems (LTI-NTDS). The ensuing method, which we name the direct method (DM), offers several unique features: It returns the number of unstable characteristic roots of the system in an explicit and non-sequentially evaluated function of time delay, tau. Consequently, the direct method creates exclusively all possible stability intervals of tau. Furthermore, it is shown that this method inherently verifies a widely accepted necessary condition for the tau-stabilizability of a LTI-NTDS. In the core of the DM lie a root clustering paradigm and the strength of Rekasius transformation in mapping a transcendental characteristic equation into an equivalent rational polynomial. In addition, we also demonstrate by an example that DM can tackle systems with unstable starting posture for tau = 0, only to stabilize for higher values of delay, which is rather unique in the literature. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.