Surety Services
YA Group has experience in surety bond claims, construction defects, property & casualty claims, and construction management. With an indispensable knowledge base and a technical resource for the surety industry, the insurance industry, and the legal community, our surety team’s time-tested construction, engineering, and claims investigations professionals are strategically located nationwide.
Expert Witness & Litigation Support
Since it is almost always in your best interest to avoid a protracted court battle, YA’s expertise proves invaluable in bringing clarity and expediency to the matter. In the pre-trial stages, we offer pointed assistance in the discovery process. Should trial become necessary, we also provide litigation support and expert witness testimony. Our analyses compare planned versus actual design and construction in three-dimensional terms. We take resourcing, methods, logistical constraints, and the acts of the involved parties into account. We identify critical paths, passages of delay and acceleration, constructive changes, estimating errors, and untimely changes. We quantify damages, identify responsible parties, and provide clear and persuasive information to assist counsel in securing a positive outcome. Litigation support services you’ll want in your corner:
- Document discovery assistance and review
- Case theme development
- Document management
- Deposition assistance
- Critique of opposing experts’ analyses
- Trial exhibit preparation
- Expert testimony
- Legal graphics
Pre-bonding Evaluations
As projects become more complicated, underwriters face ever-increasing challenges in determining a principal’s capabilities. A pre-bonding evaluation by our technical experts identifies risk and can help sureties from bonding principals who may only be exhibiting the subtlest signs of difficulty. You can request an evaluation of a principal or project before a bond is ever issued. Our services include the following:
- Credit relationship investigations
- Prior surety experience investigations
- Banking relationship investigations
- Management investigations
- Principal accounting and financial reviews
- Indemnitor accounting and financial reviews
- Bid evaluation and assistance
- Cost estimate reviews
- Budget reviews
- Cash-flow analysis
- Contractual commitment investigations
Pre-default Investigations
Because the ability to identify problems before they become financially threatening plays such a critical role in your success, investigations comprise a major thrust and strength of our pre-default services. When an obligee notifies the surety of project delays or when a subcontractor or supplier serves notice to the surety for non-payment, the principal may be in trouble. We can pinpoint these problems and expedite corrections before a default, saving you both time and money. As a full-service surety consultant, our pre-default services include the following:
- Background investigations
- Exposure evaluations and estimates
- Recovery identification
- Project status evaluations
- Specialized surety requirements
- Schedule to complete reviews and estimates
- Work quality and control evaluations
- Change order review and recommendations
- Contractor cost system evaluations
- Work methodology reviews and recommendations
Post-default Investigations
YA distinguished itself decades ago for responding to problems quickly and decisively, demonstrating our ability to reduce surety losses. The key to our successful track record rests in the depth of analysis and expert execution. Our post-default surety consulting services to you may include:
- Default and termination investigations
- Cost-to-complete reviews and estimates
- Bid procurement
- Specialized surety requirements
- Principal affirmative claim and defensive claim analysis
- SBA audit coordination and support
- Errors and omissions reviews
- Accounting and financial clerking
- Financial and operations monitoring
- Project management monitoring
Construction Defect Services
YA’s construction defect experts support attorneys, carriers, building owners, developers, and contractors with a more practical, streamlined, and credible approach. In addition to repair cost estimates and remediation services, we provide law firms with integrated, interdisciplinary litigation support, responding to you and your case needs with unparalleled speed and diligence.
Subrogation & Recovery
When a surety bond company incurs a loss from a surety claim, taking action immediately maximizes recovery. Our subrogation and recovery professionals have the knowledge and expertise to pursue subrogation and recovery on your behalf all over the world. We coordinate and complete all subrogation and recovery efforts while the claim remains active or after it is closed. Upon reviewing your case, we’ll develop an appropriate plan of action and timeline. In the vast majority of cases, our clients bear no expense unless we recover monies on their behalf. As national surety consultants, YA’s subrogation and recovery experts handle a broad spectrum of cases, from volume-oriented programs to the most complex matters. Services in the subrogation and recovery arena include:
- Asset investigations
- Collateralization of losses
- Collections
- Conversion and liquidation of assets
- Securitization of promissory notes
- Filing deeds of trust
- UCC filings
