Subcontract review for the specialty trades.

Capstan reads a specialty trade subcontract and establishes what it obliges the subcontractor to do, clause by clause, so a claim is not lost to a deadline nobody knew was running.

Send a subcontract for review The first review is at no charge.

Miami, Florida · Founded 2026

From a 131-page executed subcontract

Clause: Article 20
Starts: Knowledge of the event giving rise to the claim
Window: 10 days to make the claim in writing
And then: days, unstated
early enough for the contractor to pass the claim to the owner in time
Stated effect: The clause says a late claim is waived

The second deadline is not in the subcontract. It sits in the agreement between the contractor and the owner, one of twenty-one documents this subcontract incorporates and does not supply.

Public court exhibit · names removed

Practice

A subcontract is a set of obligations with clocks attached. Most of them are never read, and the ones that matter most are the ones whose own terms say a late notice waives a claim. Capstan works on three areas of that document.

Notice obligations and deadlines

Every provision requiring the subcontractor to notify, submit or claim within a period: what starts the clock, how long it runs, what form the notice must take, and what the clause itself says happens if it is missed.
Documents incorporated by reference

The prime contract, general conditions, schedules and exhibits a subcontract binds the subcontractor to without supplying. Where an obligation defers to one of them, the deadline cannot be computed from the subcontract alone, and the document is named so it can be requested.
Back-charge and setoff provisions

What the contractor must do before deducting, back-charging or completing the work himself. Where the contract requires notice and an opportunity to cure before the deduction, that requirement is identified and cited, because whether it was met is the first question counsel will ask.

Not covered Lien and bond deadlines are statutory and outside subcontract review. Where a deadline turns out to be one of those, it is identified and referred on.

Method

The value of a list of obligations is entirely in whether it can be relied on. A summary that quietly omits what it could not read is worse than no summary, because it is acted on. Four rules govern the work.

Every page is read. Not a keyword search and not a sample. Exhibits and schedules included, since that is where the shortest windows tend to sit.
Every assertion is cited. Each obligation carries the clause and the page it came from, so it can be checked against the document by anyone, including opposing counsel. Where the document's own numbering runs out, the provision is quoted and located by page rather than given a number it does not carry.
Gaps are named, not filled. Where a window, a form requirement or a consequence cannot be determined, the output says so and says what would settle it.
State law is flagged, not decided. Where what happens after a missed deadline turns on state law, the output says so and leaves that question to your attorney.

Both sides A subcontract imposes duties on the contractor too, and those are read as carefully. Deadlines the contractor owes are listed alongside yours, with the same citations.

Scope

The work is deliberately narrow. A subcontract on commercial or public work, read for the obligations that decide whether money already earned can still be collected.

Who	Specialty trade subcontractors. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, concrete, sheet metal, glazing, drywall, roofing and the rest.
Size	Roughly three to twenty million dollars in annual revenue. Large enough to carry real exposure, too small for a contracts department.
Work	Commercial, institutional and public projects. Not residential.
Jurisdictions	Florida projects. Where a consequence turns on state law, the output says so and leaves it to counsel.
Documents	Executed subcontracts, on standard forms or negotiated. Documents they incorporate without supplying are identified by name so they can be requested.
Turnaround	Agreed when the document arrives.
Fees	Quoted per document, in advance. The first review is at no charge.

On jurisdiction State law can decide whether a missed notice forfeits a claim or only delays it, and it differs by state. That question is flagged for your attorney, not answered here.

Notices to Owner: coming soon

A Notice to Owner service for Florida subcontractors and suppliers is in preparation. It is not taking orders yet, and no notices are being prepared or served.

To hear when it opens, with its pricing and terms, email philip@capstanclaims.com with the subject "Notices list".

When it opens, notices will be prepared and served at your direction. Capstan does not give legal advice or advise on whether to lien. Claims of lien and payment disputes go to a Florida construction attorney.

Not yet taking orders Nothing is prepared or mailed until the service opens and its terms are published.

Work product

An obligation list, in plain English, ordered so that provisions whose own terms waive a claim appear first. Each line traceable into the subcontract itself.

Where a finding cannot yet be asserted, it is shown as withheld rather than omitted, with the reason and what would release it. A reader has to be able to tell an empty list from a list something is being kept out of.

Obligation list · extract

Clause	What starts it	Window	Clause says
Ex C · 5(b)	Extra work directed	3 working days	waives claim
6	Delay begins	7 working days	waives claim
Article 20	Knowledge of claim	10 days + unstated	waives claim
13.1	Work called defective	2 to 9 days	their duty
7.3	Intent to self-perform	notice first	their duty

Five further findings against the contractor are withheld, not omitted. Service of the notices cannot yet be proved; one email with no reliable timestamp holds all five, and the original message releases them.

On clause 13.1 The contractor's duty falls on one of two dates, because the contract counts in working days and never defines a working day. The later date holds under either reading, so that is the one the file asserts. Clause rows are from a subcontract filed as a public court exhibit, names removed. The correspondence behind the withheld block is a constructed example. A subcontract proves obligations, not what was sent when.

Limits

Not a law firm and not legal advice. Capstan reports what a document says. Where the law bears on it, that is flagged for an attorney, and whether a provision is enforceable against you is their question.
Lien and bond deadlines are not part of subcontract review. Those deadlines are statutory and the review does not read for them.
Not sold to general contractors. The work is done for the subcontractor only. Most tools in this area sell to both sides of the same dispute.
Not a substitute for reading your own contract. It is a reason to, starting with the clauses that turn out to matter.

Left to counsel Whether a missed deadline forfeits a claim under Florida law is a legal question. The work product shows where it arises and leaves the answer to your attorney.

About

Capstan is the practice of Philip Trachier, in Miami. Around five years in mergers and acquisitions, most of it on transactions with founder-owned businesses, where the work is reading agreements closely and establishing what a document actually obliges someone to do.

The practice began in the public record. Construction dockets are full of claims that failed on a notice provision read for the first time after the money was gone. Reading one subcontract properly takes hours of professional time, so on most jobs it is not read, and the deadlines are discovered afterwards.

I do the work. There is no account team.

Direct philip@capstanclaims.com Replies come from me, usually the same day.

Send a subcontract and find out what it obliges you to do.

One PDF by email. It is held in confidence, shown to no one, and deleted on request; the work product goes to you alone. The first review is at no charge, because you have no reason to take my word for any of this until you have seen a document of your own read properly.

philip@capstanclaims.com

Capstan Philip Trachier
Miami, Florida
philip@capstanclaims.com