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.
Miami, Florida · Founded 2026
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
01
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.
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.
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.
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.
02
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.
03
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. |
04
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.
05
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.
| 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.
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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.
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