Contractor & Subcontractor Disputes
What is it?
Construction projects bring together multiple parties with competing interests and complex contractual obligations, and when disputes arise, the financial stakes are almost always significant. The relationship between contractors and subcontractors is governed by a web of agreements that need to work together across the full hierarchy of the project, from the owner’s contract with the general contractor through the general contractor’s agreements with its subcontractors and the subcontractors’ agreements with their own sub-tiers and suppliers. When something goes wrong at any level of that hierarchy, the dispute that follows often implicates obligations and rights that run up and down the entire chain.
Construction disputes are also shaped by the practical realities of how projects actually get built, which rarely matches the theoretical framework of the contracts that govern them. Verbal instructions, informal agreements, course of dealing, and the pressure of project schedules all affect the relationship between contractors and subcontractors in ways that the written contracts may not fully capture. Building a compelling case in a construction dispute requires understanding both the legal framework and the practical realities of how the project actually unfolded.
How we can help:
We represent contractors, subcontractors, and project owners in construction disputes, bringing a thorough understanding of construction law and the practical realities of the industry to every case we handle. That means reading the contracts carefully, reconstructing the course of performance on the project, identifying where obligations were met and where they weren’t, and building the legal and factual case that gives our clients the strongest available position at every stage of the dispute.
Construction disputes often involve significant document intensive discovery, expert testimony about industry standards and project management practices, and complex damages calculations that require careful attention to build and defend. We approach these cases with the preparation and thoroughness they require, whether we are pursuing a claim or defending against one.
Mechanic’s Lien Litigation
What is it?
A mechanic’s lien gives contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers a powerful legal claim against property when they haven’t been paid for work performed or materials supplied. It is one of the most important legal tools available to construction industry participants, providing security for payment that would otherwise be unsecured and giving contractors and suppliers leverage they would not otherwise have in payment disputes. But that power comes with strict procedural requirements that must be followed precisely, because a lien that is filed incorrectly, filed late, or not enforced within the required timeframe may be entirely unenforceable regardless of the underlying merit of the payment claim.
North Carolina’s lien statutes impose specific deadlines and procedural requirements that vary depending on the tier of the claimant in the construction hierarchy, the type of project, and the nature of the work performed. A general contractor faces different requirements than a subcontractor, and a subcontractor faces different requirements than a sub-tier supplier. Getting these requirements right demands careful attention to the specific facts of each situation and a thorough understanding of a statutory framework that does not forgive mistakes.
How we can help:
We handle mechanic’s lien filings and litigation for contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers who have not been paid, making sure every procedural requirement is satisfied and the lien is positioned to provide the maximum available leverage and security. That means acting quickly when a project reaches a point where payment is in jeopardy, because the deadlines for preserving lien rights do not wait for the parties to finish negotiating.
For property owners and general contractors defending against mechanic’s lien claims, we scrutinize every aspect of the lien for procedural deficiencies, challenge the underlying payment claims where they are overstated or unsupported, and pursue bond claims and other remedies that address the lien without conceding its validity.
Construction Delay Claims
What is it?
Construction delays cost money, and the question of who is responsible for those costs is rarely simple. Delays on construction projects can be caused by the owner, the contractor, the design team, subcontractors, suppliers, or forces outside anyone’s control, and they are often caused by a combination of these factors that makes it genuinely difficult to assign responsibility clearly. The contracts that govern construction projects typically address delay in provisions that allocate risk between the parties, but those provisions are often themselves disputed when a significant delay occurs and the financial consequences are substantial.
Establishing responsibility for a construction delay requires a detailed analysis of the project schedule, the critical path of the work, the specific events that caused the delay, and the sequence in which those events unfolded. It is technical, document intensive work that demands both legal precision and a practical understanding of how construction projects are planned and managed.
How we can help:
We represent contractors and owners in construction delay claims, building cases that establish responsibility for the delay and pursue full recovery for the costs our clients have incurred as a result. That means working with scheduling experts and other technical witnesses to reconstruct the critical path of the project, identify the specific events that caused the delay, and establish the causal connection between those events and the damages our client suffered.
For clients defending against delay claims, we challenge the causation analysis, contest the damages calculations, and build the defense that holds the claimant to its burden of proving both that the delay was the defendant’s responsibility and that the damages claimed actually resulted from the delay rather than from the claimant’s own performance issues or inefficiencies.
Construction Defect Claims
What is it?
When construction work fails to meet the standards required by the contract or the applicable building code, the resulting defects can be costly to remedy and genuinely contentious to litigate. Construction defect claims arise across a wide spectrum, from relatively minor workmanship issues to fundamental structural failures that threaten the integrity of the entire project. What they share is that establishing liability requires a detailed analysis of what the contract required, what the applicable standards of care demanded, what was actually built, and where the gap between the two is attributable to the conduct of which party.
Construction defect litigation is complicated by the fact that causation is often disputed and the chain of responsibility runs through multiple parties. A defect that manifests in the finished structure may have originated in the design, the specifications, the materials, the workmanship, or some combination of all of these, and the contractors, subcontractors, design professionals, and suppliers who contributed to the defective condition may each have arguments that the responsibility belongs to someone else in the chain.
How we can help:
We handle construction defect claims on both sides, helping clients pursue recovery for defective work and defending contractors and subcontractors against claims that overstate the defect, misidentify its cause, or misplace the responsibility for it. For clients pursuing defect claims, that means working with qualified experts to establish the standard of care, document the defect and its cause, and quantify the cost of repair in a way that courts and juries will find credible and that supports a full recovery.
For clients defending against defect claims, we challenge the expert opinions that form the foundation of the other side’s case, establish the contribution of other parties to the defective condition, and build the defense that limits our client’s exposure to the portion of the problem that is actually their responsibility rather than the entire cost that the claimant is trying to put on them.
Architect & Engineer Liability
What is it?
Design professionals carry significant legal responsibility for their work, and when errors in design lead to construction failures, cost overruns, or financial losses, the legal questions that follow are genuinely complex. Architect and engineer liability claims require establishing not just that something went wrong but that the design professional failed to meet the applicable standard of care, that the failure caused the harm complained of, and that the damages claimed are properly attributable to the design error rather than to construction deficiencies, owner-driven changes, or other intervening causes.
The standard of care for design professionals is not perfection. It is the level of skill and care that a reasonably competent professional in the same discipline would have exercised under similar circumstances. Establishing whether a design professional met or fell short of that standard requires qualified expert testimony and a thorough understanding of the technical and professional context in which the design decisions were made.
How we can help:
We represent clients in architect and engineer liability claims, bringing the technical understanding and legal precision these cases require to establish or defend against claims of professional negligence. For clients pursuing these claims, that means working with qualified design professionals to establish the applicable standard of care, document the specific ways in which the defendant’s design fell short of that standard, and build the causal chain that connects the design error to the harm our client suffered.
For design professionals defending against liability claims, we challenge the standard of care opinions offered by the other side’s experts, establish the legitimate professional judgment that supported the design decisions at issue, and identify the contributions of other parties, including contractors, owners, and other design professionals, to the outcome that the claimant is attributing entirely to our client’s work.