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As legal counsel for many general contractors, Heekin Law, P.A. feels it is important for anyone involved with, or in the construction industry to understand some basic terms and their meanings regarding construction defects and the practice of construction law. Construction defect claims can be filed at anytime a property owner believes they have a legitimate claim even years after the project has been completed. General contractors are extremely susceptible to defect allegations that can not only be costly to defend but also can damage an impeccable reputation for excellent work. For this and many other legal considerations, Heekin Law, P.A. has represented many General Contractors in multifaceted suits involving multiple parties involved in all facets of the construction industry.
Technically a construction defect is a building imperfection due to improper installation, substandard materials use, faulty design or other building issues that can lead to a building components failure. Improper maintenance or lack of general upkeep that leads to a component failure is not a construction defect and claims such as these are often filed, defended and dismissed.
Planning Phase
All building projects start with a planning and design phase of a program that can involve an individual or a collaborative team working together to reach a particular result. Building projects can be simple or complicated depending upon the building requirements needed to achieve the desired results. Contractors are at the mercy of designers and architects and should review all of the building specifications, including materials and necessary resources to complete the project before ground breaking begins. These quality steps can mitigate designs flaws and mistakes that will lead to construction defects and possible claims. In many modern projects it is not always known if a construction defect will occur due to a poor design or individual design flaw which could require a building redesign. General Contractors need to be very careful when excepting commissions, attempting to build in non-traditional ways, with non-traditional building components.
Building Materials
Commercial materials are usually warranted by manufacturers but suppliers and contractors need to inspect all materials shipped to a project and ensure all materials are in proper condition, free from defect for installation. Contractors should also be aware of the material specifications as requested by designers and architects and verify the materials are exactly the same products requested. Storage and proper handling are essential to ensure product degradation does not occur.
Workmanship Defects
General contractors are aware of manufacturer’s specification and installation instructions and should follow correct construction procedures to ensure material and installation standards are preformed correctly and without mistakes. Poor workmanship is usually due to a lack of quality control oversite. Proper training of all who perform building tasks is essential in preventing workmanship defects. The smallest installation defect can have ramifications reverberating throughout a construction project and even the minutest defect can linger for years. These defects can result in water leakage, drywall and concrete cracking, cooling and heating issues and even foundation problems. Early detection and remediation are essential in preventing costly defect claims and legal expenses. Most construction projects have many hands involved at different building stages making inspection and oversite by qualified individuals paramount to a successful, construction defect-free project. This will allow your company to avoid legal entanglements, but if representation is needed Heekin Law, P.A. Group has expert and knowledgeable attorneys ready at a moment’s notice.
Quality control oversite really falls on the shoulders of the contractor, architect, project manager, material-supplier, sub-contractor or any individual or company involved in the hierarchy of the construction project. Each individual construction partner needs to take responsibility for a quality control plan that accounts for the work performed by their employees, is at the highest grade of quality and defect-free. This includes all levels of the project: from design and planning to material supplier and workmanship contributed to the project. Every effort must be brought to bear to mitigate any factors that could potentially lead to a construction defect and the inevitable legal entanglements.
Construction Law and Litigation Attorneys Heekin Law, P.A. is a highly skilled and experienced business law firm committed to protecting its clients engaged in construction or claimants caught up in the aftermath of a defect present in their building or dwelling. Contractors in Florida do have what is referred to as a “right to repair” law that offers protection to make good any defects associated with the discovery of a construction defect, but that will not ensure their obligation to make right, what when wrong is over. Many contractors are caught completely by surprise that a construction defect has been uncovered and legal representation is needed to remediate the situation. In the event your firm has been notified as a plaintiff in a construction defect lawsuit, you will need the most capable minds available. Heekin Law, P.A. has the knowledge and resources to protect your financial interests and achieve a durable solution to your legal problems. Give us a call today for a free analysis of your legal issues at 904-355-7000. Visit our website at Jax-law.com for a complete list of our qualifications and legal services.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to