Common Causes of Construction Litigation
As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. The everyday tasks of managing employees, payroll, operations, customer service, and ensuring you’re in compliance with all laws and safety protocols are enough to fill your days.
But, when you add projects like new construction, you now have the added stress and responsibility of ensuring it’s completed according to the contract. When contract disputes arise due to delays or poor quality of construction, you may find yourself in need of legal assistance to pursue litigation.
If you’re in the Dallas, Texas, area or the surrounding area of Addison or Plano, give me a call to start talking about your options. At Uloth, P.C., I've been serving Texans for over 30 years to help their businesses succeed.
Common Causes of Construction Litigation:
There are a number of reasons you might need to pursue construction litigation. These cases are rather complex because there are so many people on a construction team that can be affected. It’s essential that you have an experienced attorney on your side to navigate your commercial lawsuit. Here are several common causes of construction litigation:
Contract Errors/Omissions: If a contract isn’t well-written, it will be left open to interpretation. You’ll also be at a greater risk of omitting important information that can negatively affect your project.
Delays: Construction delays are one of the most common reasons you may choose to pursue litigation. Some delays are unavoidable if they occur due to weather or natural disasters, but you can hold the construction company liable for other delays, especially if you have completion dates written into your contract.
Quality of Work: The quality of the construction work is more than simple aesthetics; it can also pose health and safety concerns. These issues need to be addressed, which usually means more labor, extra materials, inspections, and a delayed timeline.
Materials Used: Sometimes poor construction is not the fault of the workers or the plans, but because of the materials. If substandard or faulty materials are used, you’ll need to determine who is at fault and how to remedy the situation. In these cases, the materials will need to be reordered and the work redone to ensure the safety and integrity of the final product.
Abandoned Project: One of the toughest situations is when a construction crew abandons the project and doesn’t finish the work. This could be because the project went longer than anticipated and they had another contract to fulfill, but you’re still the one left with an unfinished worksite and leftover materials.
Payment: If you failed to pay your contractor at the agreed-upon time, you can be sued by them for non-payment.
Claims Evidence
The best way to protect yourself from a business lawsuit, either directed at you or one that you’re filing, is to ensure your contract is well-written and that you keep documentation of the entire project. When filing a lawsuit, you’ll need to produce evidence to support your claim. This can be in the form of correspondence you’ve had with the contractor, daily reports and logs of the work completed, payroll records of when payment was made for certain services, photographs or video evidence of quality issues, estimates or bid documents from the initial stages of the project, and the actual contract itself.
Recourse
In some cases, you may not want to pursue litigation with a construction firm that’s currently working for you or one that you hope to work with again in the future. However, if delays or errors occur, someone needs to be held responsible for them.
You may decide to pursue mediation at first as a way to resolve the dispute without filing an actual lawsuit. With mediation, the two parties will hire an outside mediator who works with them to come to an agreement about how to settle the problem. If this doesn’t work, you may need to resort to litigation, and an experienced business law attorney can help you present a strong claim.
Legal Advocacy You Can Trust
If you own a business in the Dallas, Texas, area and you need competent legal representation, you can count on Uloth, P.C. to protect your interests. Call me today for any of your construction litigation needs.