Mecklenburg County v. Nortel Government Solutions

    DisputeSoft was engaged as a testifying expert in 2008 by Nortel Government Solutions in the matter of Mecklenburg County v. Nortel Government Solutions, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

    On October 1, 2002, Mecklenburg County (the County) entered into a contract with Defendant PEC Solutions, Inc., which later became Nortel Government Solutions, Inc. (Nortel) in June 2005, to design and install a customized, integrated Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) for use by local law enforcement and the State of North Carolina’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).

    In July 2004, preliminary testing revealed significant issues with the CJIS software, and over the next 15 months, the CJIS software continued to fail interim System Acceptance Tests (SAT). On September 25, 2008, the County provided notice to Nortel that they had breached their contract agreement, and must rectify the contract breach by November 8, 2005 or the Plaintiffs would withdraw from the contract. On November 8, 2005, the CIJS software failed the final interim system test, which resulted in the Plaintiffs terminating the contract.

    Nature of Dispute

    On November 8, 2008, Mecklenburg County filed a breach of contract lawsuit, alleging that Nortel Government Solutions:

    1
    Breached their contract agreement by failing to deliver an SAT-ready CJIS software system by the contractually promised deadline of June 2004 for the law enforcement software component and July 2005 for the AOC component.
    2
    Fraudulently misrepresented the status of the CJIS software and its readiness for testing and implementation throughout the project.
    3
    Produced a defective and incomplete CJIS software system that did not meet contract requirements.

    Our Services

    As a software expert for Nortel Government Solutions, DisputeSoft:

    1
    Performed a defect and completion analysis of the CJIS software system, by completing a System Acceptance Test (SAT) to determine whether Nortel had fixed the allegedly unresolved software defects.
    2
    Determined whether the Plaintiffs had refused implementation of the software.
    3
    Assessed whether the facts and industry guidelines supported Mecklenburg County’s decision to terminate the contract prior to project completion.

    Founder and Chief Advisor Jeff Parmet proffered an expert report on behalf of Nortel Government Solutions on April 28, 2010, in which he determined that the final interim test on November 7, 2005 met the industry requirements for the SAT, and that Nortel had resolved all reported material deficits in the software system as required. Mr. Parmet found that Nortel had fixed twelve high priority defects, and that the County had prevented completion of an end-to-end test, as well as a functional readiness test. Mr. Parmet determined that the Plaintiffs had failed to properly train its testing staff, that their data had conversion errors, and that the CJIS software system was close to completion, despite the County claiming otherwise, before canceling the contract with Nortel. The case settled on August 10, 2010.

    Jeff Parmet

    Jeff Parmet (1946 – 2023)

    Founder & Chief Advisor (2003 - 2023)

    Jeff Parmet was a widely respected IT dispute resolution specialist who served as a con…

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    J. Todd Trivett

    Managing Director

    Todd Trivett is a recognized industry expert in Information Technology, providing consu…

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