When the building fails, the paper trail decides who pays.
A defect claim is a causation problem wrapped in a contract dispute.
Multi-party
Defect, Delay & Cost Overrun Litigation
The legal framework
Construction defect cases are rarely about whether something went wrong — they are about why, who is responsible, and what it costs to fix. We represent owners, general contractors, subcontractors, and design professionals in multi-party defect, delay, and cost-overrun disputes. The work begins with the building: investigating the alleged defect, tracing it to its cause, and mapping each party's responsibility under the contract, the warranty framework, and applicable statute. From there we build the case — expert analysis, damage quantification, and a litigation strategy that resolves the dispute efficiently and protects the project-based economics of the businesses involved.
Patent Defects
Defects apparent on inspection — cracking, water intrusion, structural movement, façade failures, and finish failures. These claims surface during or shortly after construction and typically involve clear damage quantification.
Latent Defects
Defects not discoverable until years after completion — waterproofing behind walls, foundation settlement, and concealed structural issues. Statutes of repose and discovery rules govern the window; we analyze the trigger date and the applicable limitations period.
Delay & Disruption
Schedule delays, loss of productivity, acceleration, and impact claims — apportioning delay among parties using critical-path-method analysis and schedule-impact evidence. Delay claims live or die on contemporaneous documentation.
Cost Overruns
Claims arising from scope changes, defective plans and specs, differing site conditions, and cardinal changes. The contract's change-order regime, notice provisions, and differing-site-conditions clause determine recovery.
What we handle
Defect Investigation & Causation
Working with forensic engineers and construction experts to investigate alleged defects — water intrusion, structural failures, envelope failures, foundation issues, and MEP defects — and trace each to its cause and responsible party.
Multi-Party Fault Allocation
Allocating responsibility across owners, general contractors, subcontractors, design professionals, and material suppliers — through contractual indemnity, comparative fault, and apportionment of damages under applicable state law.
Damage Quantification
Quantifying repair costs, diminution in value, loss of use, delay damages, and consequential damages — with expert support that withstands challenges to the methodology and the numbers.
Delay & Schedule Claims
Analyzing critical-path schedules, time-impact analyses, and contemporaneous project documentation to prove or defend delay, acceleration, disruption, and loss-of-productivity claims.
Design & Professional Liability
Pursuing and defending claims against architects, engineers, and design-builders for negligent design, errors and omissions, and failure to meet the applicable standard of care.
Warranty & Statute-of-Repose Defense
Analyzing express and implied warranties, statutes of repose, and statutes of limitations to determine claim viability and assert timely defenses — because a defect claim filed outside its window is a claim that fails.
Construction Law
A defect claim is a causation problem wrapped in a contract dispute. The building tells you what failed; the contract tells you who answers for it. We work both — with the experts who understand the failure and the contract framework that allocates the cost.
— Brian E. Berger, Partner
How we work
Shareholder-led from intake. Counsel that moves as fast as the matter requires — and prepares for the resolution that may never require a courtroom.
Investigate & Document
We investigate the alleged defect with forensic experts, preserve the physical evidence, and review the contract, change orders, RFIs, submittals, and contemporaneous project records that will frame the dispute.
Causation & Allocation
We trace the defect to its cause, identify the responsible parties, and map each party's contractual and tort exposure — building an allocation theory that maximizes recovery or minimizes liability.
Damage Model
We build the damage model — repair scope, cost estimates, diminution in value, delay damages, and consequential losses — with expert support that survives challenge.
Resolve & Recover
We pursue resolution through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or trial — pursuing recovery aggressively and defending against overreach efficiently, always with the project-based economics of the businesses in mind.
Representative results
Outcomes in this area. Every result depends on its facts; past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
$MM settlement
Resolved a multi-party residential construction defect dispute involving waterproofing and structural failures — allocating fault across the general contractor, waterproofing subcontractor, and design professional, and recovering repair costs plus diminution in value for the owner.
Residential Development · 2024
Critical path
Defended a general contractor against a $10M+ delay and disruption claim — proved through critical-path-method analysis that the owner's design changes, not the contractor's performance, drove the critical-path delay.
Commercial Project · 2023
Statute of repose
Defeated a latent-defect claim filed near the end of the applicable statute of repose by establishing that the discovery rule did not toll the limitations period — resolving the matter without payment.
Commercial Envelope · 2022
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Shareholder-led from the first call. We'll assess the situation, frame the options, and tell you what we'd do — straight.