As a Construction Attorney for Palm Springs and Palm Desert and the surrounding areas, Palm Springs Construction Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has seen real estate values take a disastrous plunge over the past two years.

If you're a general or sub-contractor or are employed in connected with the construction industry and work in any of the hard hit areas of Southern California, the bad news there is still bad news in the construction field. Although sales of cheaper homes are starting to rise, it still remains difficult to build homes for the prices people can afford and there are few jobs available in the construction field.

As a Construction lawyer for the entire Palm Springs and Palm Desert area, as well as other areas of Southern California, Sebastian Gibson has seen construction down as much as ninety percent or more from its peak in the Palm Springs and Palm Desert area.

In other areas, the credit crunch, delinquent construction and commercial real estate loans threaten to produce even less construction and more construction defect litigation.

It’s being reported with greater frequency, higher and higher rates of delinquency in payments of construction and commercial real estate loans. With banks having cut off credit to builders and more and more contractors being forced to declare bankruptcy or to go out of business, as a Palm Springs construction lawyer for clients from Palm Desert to Palm Springs, we have seen this scenario lead to problems.

As builders and subcontractors cut corners to make a profit on losing propositions, construction defect litigation is almost certain to rise. With the possible scope of this economic crisis now coming to fruition, fewer of the contractors and subcontractors responsible for defects are likely to be around to fix the problems.

Liability insurance for builders and contractors in California, including those in Palm Springs and Palm Desert has already been tight and some contractors have looked at their policies only to complain that despite the higher deductible, they still offer spotty protection.

A spot check of defendants in construction lawsuits filed over the past few years finds a significant percentage of the defendants in such lawsuits are no longer in business. Whether it's the result of such lawsuits or the economic crisis and the housing slump can’t be determined. What can, however, be said, is that homeowners can no longer count on their contractor or subcontractors to be in business when problems are found in the construction of their homes.

While such builders may still have insurance which covers them for their defects, it can be hard for a homeowner’s attorney to find that insurance when the builder is no longer around.

When a subcontractor or his insurer is no longer around to stand up for their mistakes, general contractors worry.

In the Coachella Valley, construction spending fell 41.4 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from a year before. Home prices dropped 22.7 percent. New construction starts were off by 90 percent since the peak of market activity in the third quarter of 2004. Unemployment in the Inland Empire of California is in the double digits and in the east part of the valley, some cities report 20 to 25 percent unemployment, particularly among the young. The construction industry that at one point employed nearly a third of the Coachella Valley’s work force has seen its jobs cut almost in half.

Construction representation of general contractors and sub-contractors requires an extensive knowleged of mechanic lien law as well as experience in litigation and arbitration. Construction defect cases in California are usually brought as a result of the negligence or incompetence of a builder or other workmen employed in the construction industry. The defense of a contractors requires knowledge of the construction industry and the willingness of the construction attorney to learn the mechanics of construction as it relates to each individual construction case.

A home with a construction defect can suffer from problems in the foundation, water intrusion and/or resultant toxic mold, paint, stucco or any number of other construction problems.

A person’s home is normally one’s largest investment. If the home you have mortgaged is suffering from construction problems that you know about and must disclose when you sell the house, the loss suffered can be enormous.

From the standpoint of the licensed and conscientious builder or individual craftsman, there is nothing worse than being dragged into a construction defect case as a defendant due to the negligence or profit-driven actions of another defendant.

Sadly, however, as the real estate market suffers, developers trying to save a dollar, may find it more and more enticing to take shortcuts, hire unlicensed subcontractors, use cheaper and less experienced workmen and focus on the exterior appearance while skimping on the structural aspects of a development.

When such lapses in judgment result in injuries as well as damage to the home, the plaintiff may have not only a construction defect case for the damage caused to the home, but also a personal injury case for their bodily injuries such as when a house fire cause by improper wiring results in injury or death.

If other home buyers in your same development have similar structural problems, you and your neighbors may have a class action case or at least a case in which you can join as co-plaintiffs and share the costs of litigation.

If the construction defects are in the form of environmenta pollution in your home such as that caused by toxic chemicals or materials in the construction of your home or due to toxic mold caused by water intrusion, air pollution, or soil pollution, you and possibly your neighbors as well may have a toxic tort case.