Construction disputes are usually documentation disputes. The contract’s notice and change provisions determine who bears cost and delay.
Delivery methods. Design-bid-build separates design from construction; design-build consolidates responsibility; construction manager at risk brings the builder in early with a guaranteed maximum price. Each allocates design risk differently, which is the single most consequential choice.
Pricing. Lump sum, cost plus with or without a guaranteed maximum, and unit price. Cost-plus arrangements require defined cost categories, audit rights and a shared-savings mechanism.
Change orders. Written, signed, before the work where possible. Contracts require notice of a claim within short periods — often days — and courts enforce those provisions. Constructive change claims, where the owner directs work without a formal order, succeed only on a contemporaneous record.
Delay. Distinguish excusable from inexcusable, and compensable from non-compensable. Concurrent delay allocation should be addressed expressly. No-damages-for-delay clauses are enforced in many states with exceptions for bad faith and active interference.
Payment. Applications, retainage, conditional and unconditional lien waivers exchanged with each payment, and pay-if-paid versus pay-when-paid clauses, which differ fundamentally in whether the subcontractor bears the owner’s credit risk.
Bonds and insurance should be verified rather than assumed at award.