Construction Law

Disputes That Lead To Construction Litigation

WHAT IS CONSTRUCTION LITIGATION?

Cotney Construction Law, defines construction litigation as an area of construction law that involves legal disputes between two or more involved parties. The parties can try to reconcile their disputes, but in many cases the dispute will be tried in court. Litigation should be considered a final attempt at reconciling. However, if after the two parties try mediation or negotiation and are unsuccessful, litigation may be necessary. If the dispute ends up in litigation, the best mode of action would be to contact a St. Petersburg contractor lawyer.

St. Petersburg contractor lawyers are very familiar with disputes, and the few things that can lead to disputes and litigations. The more a construction company knows about what causes disputes and how to prevent them, the easier they can avoid them.

POOR WORKMANSHIP OR DESIGN

If the project is incomplete, wrong, or poorly designed, that could be a major reason for a dispute. There might be extra costs and delays that are not anticipated to fix the project that the designer asks for, or even refusal of payment for the poor-quality of work from the client or contractor.

CONTRACT INFRINGEMENT

If one or both of the parties is in breach of the contract, it is likely that the breach may lead to a dispute.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Sometimes, a dispute can be caused over something so simple as not knowing who is in charge of the project. If no one takes the responsibility of being in charge or if the responsible party is not clearly identified in the contract, the contracting parties (architect, engineer, owner, contractor) can start to alter the blame if something goes wrong.

CONTRACTORS AND SUBCONTRACTORS

A repeated dispute that contractor lawyers in St. Petersburg typically see is over the scope of work between the contractor and the subcontractor. Usually, the contractor will have their subcontractor bid on a scope of work without giving all the intricate details of the plan. When this happens, the subcontractor has to figure out what the scope means, and only bids a portion of work, when instead they were supposed to bid on a bigger or different scope. This can lead to disputes between the contractor and subcontractor.

NO COMMUNICATION

Another minor and often overlooked cause of construction project related disputes is a lack of communication. If the contractor and the owner have an agreement that the contractor will have total access to a worksite or building, and later come to find out that they don’t, this can often lead to disputes.

If you are in need of representation for construction arbitration or litigation, please contact us today.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.