Jurisdiction
United States: federal and state
Every US page has to say federal or state, name the court or board, and identify the governing state. A single national rule of construction delay does not exist.
- Jurisdiction
- United States: federal and selected states
- Law and editions as at
- 3 August 2026
- Last reviewed
- 3 August 2026
- Editorial status
- Editorial draft, not yet independently reviewed
Federal construction claims
Primary law Federal construction pages start with the Federal Acquisition Regulation clauses actually incorporated into the contract: suspension of work, changes, differing site conditions, default for fixed-price construction, and liquidated damages for construction. Quote the version incorporated into the contract, not today’s web text.
Judgment Blinderman Construction Co v United States, 695 F.2d 552, and Sauer Inc v Danzig, 224 F.3d 1340, illustrate the burden of isolating government-caused critical delay and handling concurrent causes. P.J. Dick Inc v Principi, 324 F.3d 1364, belongs in the unabsorbed home-office overhead cluster rather than being reduced to a rule that a formula applies whenever completion moves.
State law
State pages must show statutory and contractual variation. California limits certain public-agency no-damage-for-delay provisions by statute while preserving notice requirements. New York’s exceptions to enforceable no-damage-for-delay clauses come from its own line of authority and are New York law, not a national rule. Florida and other states differ again.
Expert evidence
Primary law Federal Rule of Evidence 702, as amended in 2023, requires the proponent to demonstrate reliable principles and methods reliably applied to the facts. State rules vary, and the boards and the Court of Federal Claims have their own practice.
The editorial rule
A federal decision does not create an identical rule for a state project, and a state decision does not travel. Where this site states a US proposition it names the system it belongs to, and where it cannot, it says so.
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Where the record comes in
Every mechanism on this page turns on evidence: what happened, what was known and when. A record built as the job happens is worth more than any argument assembled afterwards. Construction Metric keeps that record automatically, from the messages, photographs and voice notes a site team already sends.
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The analysis on this site is only as fast as the evidence behind it. AI Metric builds bespoke systems for consultancies, contractors and claims teams: document and correspondence triage, event registers assembled from the project record, programme and cost reconciliation, and drafting support that always cites the document it came from. Built for review by your own experts, never to replace their judgement.
Do not overread this page
This is an orientation page across several separate legal systems. Statutes and clauses change, the version incorporated in a contract controls, and nothing here is advice on a federal or state claim.
General explanation of how contract mechanisms, analysis methods and legal principles generally work. It is not legal or contractual advice, not an opinion on any project, and no standard-form contract wording is reproduced anywhere on this site. Standard forms are routinely amended, so every default described here, including every time period, can be different on your project. Your executed contract, as amended, and the governing law and forum always control. Deadlines may already be running: if an event has occurred, preserve your position and take qualified advice.