Michael L. Chartan, Esq. is a seasoned litigator who has focused his legal practice primarily on construction law and real estate law matters. Mr. Chartan has a wealth of experience handling issues involving breach of contract, claims for extra work, contract balance, delay and disruption, and property damage, including how to use insurance to cover claims and lien foreclosures. He has worked with individual clients and companies of all sizes, including public and privately held firms, both locally and on a national scale.

Construction law and defect claims can often be incredibly complex matters due to the nuanced subject matter, number of parties, and voluminous documents that are frequently involved. Mr. Chartan has the consummate knowledge and thorough understanding of this practice, having represented a wide spectrum of clients including owner-developers, construction managers, general contractors, sub-contractors, and design professionals. He has successfully handled cases that have involved multiple parties, extensive electronic and paper document production and review, depositions of executives, project personnel and experts, and substantive motions.

Mr. Chartan has also served as Special Counsel to the County of Nassau, New York, where he oversaw all construction and real estate property tax disputes. He was lead trial and appellate attorney for Nassau County in a multiple party litigation that concerned the construction of the Nassau County District Courthouse. Mr. Chartan has additional construction experience involving cases that include the construction of a sewer pipeline, police pistol range, and a digester gas plant. He has previously advised Nassau County in its reassessment of properties for tax purposes, and claims of over-assessment by commercial property owners, including Belmont Park. As a litigator, Mr. Chartan has participated in numerous mediations and arbitrations and is a longtime advocate of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which he views as an effective method to quickly and cost-effectively move cases to settlement. His integrity and legal acumen have gained the respect of both the plaintiff and defense bars. Through his experience, manner, and many years of practice, Mr. Chartan has garnered a reputation for being fair and reasonable. He is known for his ability to accurately evaluate cases and effectively guide parties and counsel to an equitable and impartial resolution.

Over a forty-year career practicing construction law in the New York Metropolitan area, Mr. Chartan has represented publicly traded companies as well as privately owned companies and municipalities. The cases handled by Mr. Chartan included claims and damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars including contract and defect experience ranging from claims for contract balance, change orders, property damage, and delay damages, all of which involve sophisticated contract interpretation questions. Mr. Chartan’s cases require him to work with experts such as architects, engineers, and schedulers, including Critical Path Method schedules used for construction projects involving multiple trades contractors. Mr. Chartan, as first chair, has tried jury and non-jury cases in state and federal courts and has also represented clients in mediation and arbitration.

Mr. Chartan’s ADR work for NAM includes serving as the neutral arbitrator in several construction related matters with a variety of issues in dispute, including compliance with contract terms, timely notice, determination of scope of work and entitlement to additional costs, determination of differing site conditions, and remediation of construction sites that involved two-party cases, including private and public owners. He has conducted hearings during which witnesses have testified as well as presided over contractually agreed expedited project arbitration enabling the parties to obtain decisions about disputes prior to project completion. The issues in these disputes include contract interpretation, claims for extra work, and delay. Many of the disputes heard by Mr. Chartan require him to examine the plans and specifications and decide whether the work is included or not included in the parties’ contracts as well as whether the contractual required notice has been furnished.

Mr. Chartan is available to arbitrate and mediate construction cases throughout the New York Metro area.