Moving The Project Forward. (From Everyone's Point of View):
Regardless of which Building Department or Regulatory Agency has jurisdiction over your project, there is no doubt that you will be required to satisfy one or more agencies for your project to move forward, and most likely, at some point during the project, one or more of these agencies will either slow down your project, stop the work temporarily, require you to attend a violation hearing or simply increase the cost of your project. From obtaining permits, to giving notice of abnormally dangerous activities such as blasting, to the supervision of shoring, excavation and safety, the Building Department and similar agencies will impact the time and cost of your project. Building departments are known to issue "violations" and "stop work orders," which can not only delay the substantial completion date of any given project but may also result in a "violation hearing" fines and assessment of liability. If you are not properly represented at a violation hearing, you may think pleading guilty to a violation and paying a small fine is the end of the matter. This, however, is untrue. A Plea of Guilty at a violation hearing can later be used in lawsuit between the contractor and the owner for delay claims, it may be used by an adjacent property owner to show that a developer admitted to failing to protect the adjacent property o during an excavation or foundation process or a host of other reasons. Therefore, it is important to inform your attorney of any violation, stop work order or other negative action taken by the building department or other agency immediately. While expediters, engineers and architects will be primarily responsible for assisting an owner and contractor at the building department, you should have an experienced construction attorney like Mr. Berkley represent you at such hearing. Mr. Berkley will also be able to analyze your construction contract to help you determine the impact of any delay caused by a stop work order or violation may have on your contractual liability.
Read this article from the New York Times from April 2008 describing a crane accident that killed seven people.
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Call 888-512-5875 or contact us online to schedule an appointment with an experienced construction lawyer. Our phone is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For your convenience, evening and weekend appointments, as well as construction site visits, are available.
We have two locations to serve our clients. Our New York office is located in Garden City, near the Roosevelt Field Shopping Mall, and our New Jersey office, in Hackensack, is near the Bergen County Courthouse. We represent clients throughout all five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island), Long Island or New Jersey.
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