Construction Defect & Construction Disputes
Owner-side project disputes handled with discipline, not sprawl.
Construction disputes hit owners as business problems before they become pleading categories. Burnside Property & Project Claims focuses on defect, delay, responsibility, and arbitration-driven project disputes where value, timing, and repair strategy are all exposed. For qualifying serious matters, contingency-based representation may be available where the claim and economics support it.
Best First Step
Start with a short, non-confidential summary. If the dispute is large enough to justify focused counsel, you will get a direct initial read and a clear next step.
Focused construction-dispute counsel when repair sequencing, delay pressure, and claim strategy all need to stay aligned.
Construction + insurance focus
Construction and insurance disputes stay at the center of the work.
Owner-side matters for property owners.
Contingency-fee representation
We work on a contingency-fee basis rather than billing by the hour.
Clients do not pay unless the matter succeeds.
Millions recovered
Kelly McCann has recovered millions of dollars for property owners.
Through trial, arbitration, and settlement.
Construction pricing background
Background includes work as a construction cost estimator.
Useful when repair scope, reconstruction timing, and cost consequences all matter at once.
Knowledge Center
Construction and insurance articles give owners, advisors, and referral partners practical guidance on active disputes.
Why This Role Is Different
Why bring in focused special counsel instead of broader counsel?
Some construction disputes need focused claim strategy, not broader general representation. That usually happens when defect, delay, scope, and project economics are all moving together.
Focused special counsel
Focused special counsel helps preserve claims, clarify responsibility, and keep the dispute commercially coherent.
Broader counsel
Broader project, transaction, development, or general-litigation roles can stay where they already sit.
The role is the dispute, not the whole project
The work stays centered on responsibility, defect, delay, repair cost, and the owner-side claim strategy.
Useful when schedule and repair decisions affect leverage
Owners often call when repair sequencing, completion pressure, or consultant responsibility are already shaping the record.
Built for disputes tied to property economics
These matters are usually not just technical construction disagreements. They affect financing, turnover, reserves, and revenue.
Works with broader project and litigation teams
Development, local-counsel, restructuring, or general litigation roles can stay in place while the dispute itself gets focused attention.
Why Aligned Economics Matters
Serious construction disputes sometimes need specialist counsel without a large hourly burn.
The fee structure can be part of the strategic fit when a construction dispute is already stressing capital, schedule, reserves, or repair decision-making. The issue is not cheapness. It is whether the matter justifies focused specialist work without broad, diffuse staffing.
For qualifying serious matters, contingency may be available once the dispute, the recovery path, and the economics are understood.
Project pressure is usually already expensive
Delay, remediation, financing strain, and turnover pressure can make broad hourly staffing harder to justify.
Aligned economics can keep the dispute moving
For qualifying serious matters, contingency can make it easier to bring in specialized dispute counsel before the project story drifts further.
Useful when the owner is already carrying the economics
The owner is often funding repairs, carrying delay, or absorbing business consequences while responsibility is still being sorted out.
The matter still has to support the structure
The seriousness of the dispute, the recoverability path, and the commercial reality still need to justify focused counsel.
When To Call
How construction disputes usually show up.
These disputes usually become serious when repair decisions, sequencing, completion pressure, and responsibility are all starting to move together.
Defect and remediation disputes
Water intrusion, envelope failure, systems defects, recurring trade issues, and disputes over scope, responsibility, and repair strategy.
Delay and project breakdown
Schedule slippage, sequencing failure, or stalled completion that creates pressure across financing, operations, turnover, and insurance.
Design and consultant responsibility
Owner-side conflicts involving architects, engineers, construction managers, and project professionals whose decisions materially affect outcome.
Commercial leverage and resolution
Claim framing, expert input, settlement dynamics, and next-step strategy built around the owner's business leverage.
Matters Burnside Handles
Matters Burnside handles
Burnside is usually called when the dispute affects repair cost, completion pressure, financing, turnover, or the owner's broader leverage.
Envelope and water-intrusion disputes
Exterior wall, waterproofing, window, balcony, roof, and recurring moisture-related failures.
Delay and completion disputes
Slippage, stalled completion, or remediation timing that creates pressure across financing, operations, turnover, or insurance.
Consultant and design responsibility disputes
Owner-side claims involving architects, engineers, construction managers, and project professionals whose decisions materially affect the outcome.
Arbitration-driven construction disputes
Contract-driven disputes where the owner needs focused special counsel who can shape the case early and keep the project story commercially coherent.
Why Owners Hire Burnside
Why owners hire Burnside for serious construction disputes.
Owners usually call Burnside when repair decisions, project pressure, and responsibility all start moving together and the dispute needs a controlled owner-side strategy.
Construction and insurance stay at the center
Burnside is a specialty construction and insurance law firm, not a broad general-litigation shop.
Finance, law, construction pricing, and real-estate study
Kelly McCann's background combines a finance degree, construction cost-estimating work, a J.D. with a CALI Award, and an M.S. in Real Estate.
Published guidance on construction and insurance issues
Construction and insurance articles give owners, advisors, and referral partners practical guidance on active disputes.
Contingency-fee representation
Burnside Law Firm works exclusively on a contingency-fee basis. Clients do not pay unless the matter succeeds.
Illustrative Scenarios
Examples of serious construction disputes.
These summary-level scenarios show the kinds of defect, delay, and project-pressure disputes that usually justify a call before the project story drifts further.
Illustrative Scenario
Illustrative project dispute with defect, delay, and consultant pressure
Asset Type
Real-estate project
Problem Type
Defect + delay + responsibility
Where Value Gets Exposed
Completion pressure, repair sequencing, and financing strain all change leverage.
Where Burnside Helps
Useful when the claim story needs to stay commercially coherent while the project team is still dealing with the facts on the ground.
Why It Matters
The practical inflection point usually arrives before the project record feels complete.
Illustrative Scenario
Illustrative project-loss scenario where scope is not the whole story
Asset Type
Major property or project loss
Problem Type
Insurance recovery + reconstruction strategy
Where Value Gets Exposed
Soft costs, code, delay, and reconstruction timing can move the economics faster than the headline repair number.
Where Burnside Helps
Useful when the claim has to be built around the property or project economics rather than around raw line items alone.
Why It Matters
The file gets clearer when timing, reconstruction strategy, and claim strategy stay aligned.
Illustrative scenarios are shown in summary form only. They are not client descriptions and do not guarantee outcomes.
WHY OWNERS CALL
Owners call when the dispute starts changing schedule, financing, or repair decisions.
The right time to call is usually when delay, repair sequencing, consultant exposure, or financing and operations pressure start changing leverage around the project.
Scope and repair sequencing
Preservation of consultant and contractor claims
Interface with lender and ownership stakeholders
Expert-driven valuation of delay and remediation exposure
When Focused Special Counsel Often Makes Sense
When a construction dispute needs focused counsel
Construction disputes tend to justify focused special counsel when the project pressure, repair decisions, and claim framing start changing leverage at the same time.
Related Reading
Useful notes when defect, delay, and project pressure start to overlap.
This guidance helps explain when project rescue, repair sequencing, and special-counsel timing start to change leverage.
Referral Path
Bring in focused dispute counsel before the project story drifts.
Call before delay, repair sequencing, consultant exposure, or project pressure harden into a more expensive dispute story.