Construction Damages

Our forensic construction engineering analysis examines structural failures, code violations, and construction defects, then quantifies the resulting delay and damages. It works alongside our electrical and utility damages, commercial litigation support, and economic consulting and valuation practices. Failure-investigation methods align with guidance from NIST.

What we quantify

• Delay and disruption damages — extended general conditions, escalation, idle equipment and labor, and the cost of working out of sequence. Priced against the schedule, not asserted as a lump sum.
• Cost overruns — measured mile, modified total cost, and discrete cost analysis, with the method chosen for what the records will actually carry.
• Lost profits and lost bonding capacity — for contractors taken off a job, and for owners whose asset came online late.
• Change-order economics — the pricing of directed and constructive changes, and the difference between the change’s cost and its knock-on effect on everything else.
• Progress-payment and pay-application review — invoiced amounts against contract terms, schedules of values, and what was actually in place.
• Acceleration and inefficiency — the cost of compressing a schedule, including the productivity loss that acceleration buys.
• Business interruption — where a construction failure stops an operating business rather than a project.

What we are, and what we are not

We are forensic economists and forensic accountants. We quantify the money.

We do not offer engineering opinions. Whether a design was defective, whether a means and method departed from the standard of care, what physically caused a failure — those are opinions for a licensed engineer, and we do not give them. If your matter needs one, retain one; we will work alongside them and take causation as their opinion establishes it.

This division is worth being explicit about, because it is where construction damages testimony usually gets attacked. An expert who opines on both the engineering cause and the economic consequence invites the argument that neither opinion was independent. Ours rests on the engineer’s, and says so.

Who retains us

Owners, general contractors, subcontractors, sureties and their counsel — and on both sides of the caption. A delay claim looks different from the defense side, and we work both, which means we have usually seen the rebuttal before it is written.

What we need to start

For the conflict check, party names only — the case name, the case number if it is filed, and the parties and firms on both sides.

Once engaged: the contract and any modifications, the as-planned and as-built schedules, pay applications and the schedule of values, daily reports, change-order files and correspondence, and the job cost ledger. Schedule and cost data are what make or break the analysis, and their condition usually tells us within a few days whether a claim can be quantified reliably or only estimated.

Frequently asked questions

Can you do the delay analysis, or do we need a scheduling expert?

We analyze the economic consequence of delay — what the extended duration cost, and who absorbed it. Establishing entitlement to that time, and the forensic schedule analysis behind it, is often a separate engagement and sometimes a separate expert. Tell us at the scoping call which piece you need; if it is both, we will say plainly which part we can carry.

Which cost methodology will you use?

Whichever one the records support. Measured mile is the strongest where a clean unimpacted period exists; discrete cost analysis where the job cost ledger is coded well enough to isolate the impact; total cost and modified total cost only where nothing better is available, and with the recognition that courts treat them skeptically. We do not pick the method that produces the largest number.

Do you work for defendants?

Yes — the firm’s caseload runs a caseload balanced between plaintiff and defense across all practice areas. On construction matters a large share of the work is rebuttal: testing another expert’s model rather than building one.

Can you tell early whether the claim is quantifiable?

Usually. Send the schedules and the job cost data and we will tell you within a short engagement whether the records will carry a damages opinion or whether the claim will have to be proved another way. That is worth knowing before positions harden.

What are your rates?

We send the rate schedule and a full CV with the proposal after the scoping call, so you are pricing against a defined scope.