Common Legal Problems Faced by Construction Companies

Disputes can arise often in the construction industry whether or not the alleged defect is your fault. Unfortunately, many of these disputes often must be resolved in court, necessitating the services of a construction expert witness to bring the claim to resolution.

According to Lyle Charles, the nature of the construction process often fosters disagreements. Following are some of the most common construction dispute that contractors may face.

Deficient design is responsible for approximately 38 percent of construction disputes. Specifics can involve performance specifications, whereby the project comes out different than anticipated. Other situations that can benefit from the services of construction consulting services when trying to mitigate disputes are defective plans, resulting from designers’ mistakes, and construction defects that result from workers deviating from specified plans. Timing disputes are also common problems. These can involve project equipment or materials, changes in design and specifications, lack of labor, defective plans, questionable site conditions and owners interfering with the project or the contractors. In extreme circumstances, disputes may still proceed to state courts for resolution.

Construction claim preparation can often end up in out-of-court settlements that involve methods such as dispute resolution boards, which may be written into a construction contract, mediation, which can occur during the construction process or after work has been completed, or arbitration, which can consist of a panel of expert witness who will testify about the circumstances of the dispute.