On January 8, 2024, the State of New Jersey enacted a new law, mandating additional licensing requirements for home improvement and home elevation contractors, with the aim of further protecting New Jersey homeowners and...more
On November 17, 2023, Governor Hochul signed a bill placing significant restrictions on the amount of retainage that can be withheld from contractors and subcontractors, and permitting the earlier submission of final billing...more
Are you a New Jersey property owner or developer being ignored by an overwhelmed municipal building code inspector? Well, New Jersey has just passed a law that will provide you – and local officials – with some relief....more
When does a claim for $50,000 against your business end up costing you two or three times that amount? When you lose the case you’re litigating, in full or in part, and you end up owing years of interest and attorneys’ fees...more
On February 3, 2022, New Jersey’s Appellate Division issued a decision for publication addressing the scope of the common law litigation privilege and, among other things, whether that privilege attaches to the filing of a...more
Dispute resolution provisions providing for mediation as a prerequisite to arbitration are standard in AIA construction contracts. Parties may nonetheless mutually agree to eliminate or waive those provisions and proceed...more
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order #142 on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, permitting suspended non-essential construction projects to resume starting, Monday, May 18, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. In his briefing this...more
Earlier this week, on Monday, we had reported that New Jersey was allowing, subject to proper distancing and safety measures, all construction projects within the State to proceed “as usual,” but that we believed New Jersey...more
New Jersey, like its sister state New York, has been overwhelmed in recent weeks with COVID-19 cases, and both states have responded in kind with a variety of “stay at home” executive orders in an attempt to reduce, as much...more
New Jersey’s Appellate Division has once again served a stark reminder to prospective construction lien claimants regarding who may validly sign a construction lien claim. The consequences of failing to properly execute a...more
Published cases examining the New Jersey Construction Lien Law (“CLL”) tend to be few and far between, but recently the Appellate Division issued a decision to be published, helping to further illuminate, albeit on a fairly...more
Last week, New Jersey’s Appellate Division re-affirmed the principle that a court must strictly apply the terms of a construction contract when determining a dispute between contracting parties. Where the contract terms...more
New Jersey courts are continuing their trend of extending insurance coverage for third-party construction defect claims. Following last year’s NJ Supreme Court decision in Cypress Point Condo. Ass’n, Inc. v. Adria Towers,...more
So, you properly file your construction lien claim within the time allowed by the New Jersey Construction Lien Law (“CLL”), and then timely send out a copy of the lien by certified and ordinary mail to the address of the...more
So you’ve managed to successfully file a construction lien claim in New Jersey. Well, don’t then kick back and relax for too long, because if you fail to take action to enforce that lien claim within the limited time...more
The right to file a mechanic’s lien is established by state statute, allowing those providing work, services, materials or equipment to a construction project with additional valuable security in the event of non-payment of...more
On April 14, 2016, the New Jersey Appellate Division, in a precedential decision, determined that injured parties are not obligated to serve pre-suit tort claims notices under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act (“TCA”) on private...more
Echoing down Main Street in Hackensack is the incessant and repetitive booming of the driving of piles into the ground on what was once the visitor parking lot next to the Courthouse and former jail. The pile driving is part...more
In our June 3, 2013 blog post, we discussed a decision of the New Jersey Appellate Division upholding a municipality’s rejection of the lowest bid for a waste hauling contract because it was determined to be a material,...more
It is fundamental that all applicants seeking to obtain a use variance from a municipal zoning board of adjustment under the Municipal Land Use Law (“MLUL”) must prove that they satisfy both the so-called “positive” and...more
In a recent unpublished opinion, New Jersey’s Appellate Division provides another reminder to contractors bidding on municipal contracts to timely challenge any portion of the bid specifications that may be improper or...more