Technical Advocacy & Dispute Support
Practical construction knowledge on your side of the table
Most building disputes are resolved without a hearing—and many are settled on scopes and terms drafted by people who have never built anything. The cost of that error shows up later, when the agreed rectification work fails to address the actual defect.
MPDBC acts as a party-appointed technical adviser to homeowners, builders, and their legal representatives. We help you understand your position, test the opposing side’s arguments, and make decisions on a technically informed basis. This service runs from early triage through to supporting your legal team once proceedings are on foot.
Note: This service is provided solely for the benefit of the instructing party and does not carry the independence obligations of an expert witness.
Our Technical Support Services
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Dispute Triage: Preliminary technical merits reviews and early dispute triage.
Document Reviews: Detailed analysis of defect allegations, builder responses, consultant reports, drawings, specifications, scopes, quotations, and project records.
Compliance Analysis: Deep-dive assessments of workmanship, buildability, compliance issues, and practical rectification methodologies.
Evidence Management: Identification of evidence gaps and assistance organising a technical chronology, issue schedule, or supporting material.
Advisory Reports: Targeted technical advisory reports for you and, where applicable, your legal representatives.
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Scott Schedules: Preparation and maintenance of defect schedules aligning each allegation with the breach, the standard relied on, the evidence, the rectification scope, and the amount claimed.
Pleadings Review: Technical review of pleadings, points of claim and defence, defect lists, and technical statements for accuracy, consistency, and evidentiary support.
Technical Chronologies: Building robust timelines from contracts, variations, site diaries, inspection and test records, certificates, correspondence, invoices, and programs.
Discovery Coding: Reviewing and coding documents through discovery to isolate material of genuine significance and identifying missing records.
Legal Requests: Assistance framing requests for particulars, notices to produce, and subpoena schedules directed to technical matters.
Expert Instructions: Preparing instruction packages for independently appointed experts, including questions, agreed facts, assumptions, and testing protocols.
Opposing Expert Analysis: Dissecting the opposing expert’s report regarding instructions, assumptions, methodology, code editions, sampling, and costings.
Counsel Briefing: Developing cross-examination question sets and technical briefing notes for counsel.
Hearing Support: Attendance at conferences with counsel and at hearings in an active support capacity.
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Scope Comparison: Reviewing competing rectification scopes and quotations for buildability, duplication, omission, betterment, and reasonable rates.
Settlement Review: Assessing proposed settlement terms and rectification scopes for practical, real-world technical adequacy and workability.
Risk Assessments: Formulating risk-weighted defect positions to identify which claims are most and least likely to survive technical scrutiny.
Dispute Representation: Attendance at mediations, conciliations, settlement conferences, or without-prejudice meetings as a party-appointed technical adviser.
Strategic Questioning: Assistance framing questions for builders, contractors, certifiers, and independently appointed experts.
Suitability & Scope
Suited To: Homeowners and builders facing a dispute, and solicitors and counsel running residential building matters in NCAT, the courts, arbitration, adjudication, or expert determination.
Scope Note: This service supports the instructing party’s position and decision-making. Where a matter requires independent expert evidence, MPDBC will assist in identifying and briefing a suitable alternative expert rather than change roles.
Exclusions: This service does not involve legal advice, legal representation, drafting of pleadings, independent determination of liability, neutral mediation, arbitration, quantity surveying, or formal delay or quantum analysis.
