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Case Study · Construction Defect Litigation

1 terabyte reviewed. Weeks, not months.

When an HOA brought suit against a developer, general contractor, and architect for water intrusion and structural damage across three buildings and 68 units, the evidence set was massive: over 1 million files across 1TB of data. DecoverAI processed the full corpus, surfaced liability-mapping evidence, and completed first-pass review in weeks—at a fraction of managed review cost.

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Matter
Construction Defect
Data Volume
1TB / 1M+ files
Cost Reduction
90%+
Parties
HOA + 3 defendants
By the numbers

Scale, speed, and savings that changed the case

1TB
Data processed
One full terabyte—over 1 million files—processed, indexed, and made searchable for the full litigation team.
90%
Cost reduction vs managed review
Over 90% cost reduction compared to traditional managed review, with total review cost dropping from $1.5M–$2.5M to $50K–$150K.
3 wks
To first-pass review
First-pass review completed in 2–3 weeks, compared to 4–6 months for a traditional review team of the same scope.
01The Brief

Case summary

An HOA brought a multi-party construction defect lawsuit against a developer, general contractor, and architect. Three buildings. 68 units. Extensive water intrusion and structural damage. The litigation implicated every party involved in the design and construction of the complex—and the document record that tied them together was enormous.

The evidence set spanned over 1 million files across 1 terabyte of data—architectural drawings, construction logs, contractor communications, inspection reports, material specifications, subcontractor invoices, warranty documents, and expert analyses. A traditional managed review would have taken four to six months and cost between $1.5M and $2.5M.

The litigation team turned to DecoverAI. With a custom ingestion pipeline built for the volume and document diversity of the matter, DecoverAI processed the full corpus, built liability-mapping views across all three defendants, and delivered a searchable, cross-referenced corpus to the team in weeks.

02The Challenge

Five problems no managed review team could solve on this timeline

Multi-party construction defect work combines the scale of complex commercial litigation with the document diversity of a construction project. Schaff needed to solve:

  • Scale beyond managed review
    1TB of data and 1 million files is too large for a traditional review team to process in a litigation timeline. Standard managed review would have taken 4–6 months and cost $1.5M–$2.5M.
  • Multi-party liability complexity
    With three defendants, establishing which party was responsible for which defect required tracing communications, approvals, and instructions across overlapping document sets.
  • Diverse and unstructured document types
    Architectural drawings, construction logs, contractor communications, inspection reports, material specifications, subcontractor invoices, and expert reports all needed to be classified, linked, and searchable.
  • Evidence buried across custodians
    Key evidence—an email approving a defective waterproofing spec, a failed inspection report, a contractor voiding a warranty—was buried somewhere in 1 million files. Finding it manually was not an option.
  • Litigation timeline pressure
    With depositions, expert reports, and motion practice on the calendar, the review had to be completed on a litigation timeline—not the months-long timeline of traditional managed review.
03How DecoverAI Delivered

Custom-built for 1 million files

Large-scale document ingestion

The full 1TB corpus was ingested, processed, and indexed. Custom ingestion handled the diversity of file types—PDFs, CAD files, email threads, spreadsheets, scanned documents—without data loss or normalization gaps.

Construction defect pattern detection

DecoverAI was configured to recognize patterns specific to construction defect litigation: defective specifications, failed inspections, warranty disclaimers, change orders affecting structural integrity, and communications about known defects.

Contractual and specification analysis

Contracts between the HOA, developer, general contractor, architect, and subcontractors were cross-referenced to map each party's obligations, exposures, and indemnity coverage across the full project lifecycle.

Liability tracing across custodians

DecoverAI built entity-linked views tracing communications, approvals, and decisions across all custodians and all three defendant parties—making it possible to establish who knew what, and when.

04Cost & Time

The numbers that made the decision easy

A side-by-side comparison of traditional managed review against DecoverAI for this matter. The same scope. The same document set. A fundamentally different result.

Metric Traditional Managed Review With DecoverAI
Review Team Size15–25 contract reviewersDecoverAI + 2–3 attorneys
First-Pass Review4–6 months2–3 weeks
Cost per Document$1.50–$2.50$0.05–$0.15
Total Review Cost$1.5M–$2.5M$50K–$150K
Cost Savings90%+ ($1M+ saved)
05The Impact

What the litigation team achieved

  • 1TB of data and over 1 million files processed and made searchable—the full corpus available for review in weeks, not months.
  • 90%+ cost reduction compared to managed review: total review cost of $50K–$150K vs the $1.5M–$2.5M a traditional approach would have required.
  • Over $1M saved, freeing litigation budget for expert witnesses, depositions, and trial preparation rather than document review.
  • Multi-party liability mapped across three defendants—developer, general contractor, and architect—with evidence linked by custodian, document type, and timeline.
  • Key evidence surfaced that would have been buried in 1 million files under traditional review: defective specification approvals, failed inspection records, and communications about known structural issues.

DecoverAI transformed how we approached this case. With over a million files to process, we needed a platform that could handle the volume without sacrificing accuracy. DecoverAI delivered on both fronts—surfacing critical evidence faster than any traditional review method could.

Partner, Litigation Practice
Construction Defect Team

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