Construction Dispute Lawyers

Construction is one of the most dispute-prone industries in the Southeast, and for good reason. Projects involve layered contracts, tight margins, weather delays, design changes, and a chain of parties who each depend on the others to perform and pay on time. When something goes wrong, the money at stake is often substantial and the deadlines to protect your rights are unforgiving.

This resource explains how construction disputes unfold in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, with particular attention to the mechanic's lien deadlines that catch so many contractors off guard. Whether you are a general contractor, subcontractor, supplier, or owner, understanding these rules in advance is the difference between getting paid and absorbing a loss.

Mechanic's Lien Deadlines You Cannot Miss in AL, GA & SC

The mechanic's lien is one of the most powerful collection tools available to contractors and suppliers in all three states, but it is also one of the least forgiving. The deadlines are strict, they differ by state and by your role on the project, and missing them can permanently extinguish your lien rights no matter how clearly you are owed the money.

In Alabama, the exact deadline to file a mechanic's lien depends entirely on your role in the project. General contractors have six months to record a lien after the last day of work. Subcontractors and suppliers have four months. Laborers have just thirty days. Because each of these windows runs from your own last day of furnishing labor or materials, two parties on the same project can have very different deadlines. And the clocks change at the state line: in Georgia, a claim of lien generally must be filed within 90 days of last furnishing and enforced within 365 days of filing; in South Carolina, the lien generally must be filed and served within 90 days of last furnishing and foreclosed, with a lis pendens, within six months of last furnishing.

Certain roles also carry advance notice requirements that must be satisfied before a lien is even filed, particularly for subcontractors and suppliers who did not contract directly with the owner. Because these timelines and notice rules turn on the specific facts of who you are and what you supplied, the safest course is to calendar your deadlines the moment a payment problem appears, not after it festers.

Change Orders, Scope Creep, and Delay Claims

The single most common source of construction disputes is work that falls outside the original scope. Owners and upstream contractors frequently request changes verbally or through informal direction, then resist paying for them when the invoice arrives. Courts in all three states will often enforce payment for extra work, but your ability to recover depends heavily on documentation.

Delay claims are equally fact-intensive. When a project runs long, the question becomes who caused the delay and whether the contract allocates that risk. Concurrent delays, where multiple parties contribute, are particularly complex and reward the party with the cleaner project records.

Defect Claims and the Right to Cure

Allegations of defective work cut both ways. As a contractor, you may face a claim that your work was deficient; as an owner, you may be confronting visible problems with a finished project. State law and most construction contracts give the responsible party a right to inspect and, in many cases, an opportunity to cure before damages are assessed.

Preserving evidence of the actual condition of the work, through photographs, inspection reports, and expert evaluation, is essential. Defect disputes are frequently resolved by the credibility and thoroughness of the documentation each side brings to the table.