(This story, in slightly different form, originally appeared in the National Law Journal.)

Litigation is cropping up across the country over multimillion-dollar hotel, condominium and manufacturing building developments that unraveled as US financing tightened during the past year, leaving financiers, developers and contractors to fight over who should pay for the failed deals.

Although many developments have fallen into foreclosure in the past few years with courts sorting out claims, others that stalled or stopped are now devolving into litigation as parties that invested <money, labor and materials in the projects turn on each other to recoup what they can.

From a $181-million hotel envisioned for Norfolk, VA, to a planned $530-million auto parts plant in Tipton, IN, lawsuits are popping up over deals gone bad. At the same time, some companies are waiting in the wings, assessing whether to sue or hope that the improving credit market will solve their problems, say litigators being drawn into the real estate disputes.