Residential Contractor Boot Camp
Construction Delays in the Time of Coronavirus: A Legal Perspective
Whether a construction dispute is subject to arbitration or court litigation, the parties to the dispute will most likely engage in a process to exchange their project files, project-related emails, and a myriad of other...more
A recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida demonstrates how facts supported by documents generated during the project can be vital to prime contractor/subcontractor disputes. In...more
Welcome to our eighth issue of 2024 for our construction industry insights e-newsletter - The Site Report. Atlantech Decision Enforces Important Lessons About Avoiding Double-Payment Jeopardy in North Carolina...more
Bricker Graydon's construction attorneys are proud to present "Top Gun," our premier Midwest construction claims seminar. This seminar will cover: - Important construction concepts, including key contract language, best...more
Residential construction is difficult. Margins and schedules are tight. The demands by homeowners can be oppressive. And in the end, owners have to deal with every possible issue on their own. Then, if anything goes wrong,...more
The plaintiff, a diesel technician, was lying beneath a lifted trailer working on a faulty airbrake system when the trailer fell on him, causing catastrophic injuries. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s dismissal...more
A mechanics’ lien is a powerful remedy that provides a contractor with a priority lien on a property and a fast means of being made whole if payment is not rendered at the completion of a job. In order to successfully obtain...more
I have practiced law for 40 years, with the vast majority spent as a “construction lawyer.” I have seen great… and bad… construction lawyering, both when on the other side of a dispute, as well as when serving well over 300...more
The court in AECOM v. Flatiron is back at it issuing additional evidentiary rulings as the parties head to trial later this month. These latest rulings highlight the risk of seeking the same damages from multiple parties,...more
A Colorado federal court will allow a contractor to prove up more than $250 million in damages using the modified total cost method (see AECOM Technical Services v. Flatiron AECOM, LLC, Case No. 19-CV-2811, 2024 WL 22640 (D....more
General Contractors may seek to condition payments to Subcontractors by using “pay-if-paid” or “pay-when-paid” clauses in their contracts. Typically, as the name suggests, pay-when-paid provisions concern the timing of...more
Recently, the Oregon Court of Appeals reinstated a contractor’s mechanics lien claim notwithstanding the owner’s offer of payment because the offer was conditioned on the contractor signing a broad lien waiver that would have...more
Retainage can be tricky in Alabama, particularly on public projects. In this post, we address retainage on public projects for public owners in the state (e.g., a governmental board, commission, agency, body, authority,...more
In our first two articles in this series, we introduced the new Civil Transactions Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (referred to as the “KSA Civil Code”) and provided analysis of its key provisions relevant to forming...more
A fundamental premise of contract law is that promises must be kept. If legally enforceable promises or “contracts” are not kept, courts may step in to enforce them by ordering performance, awarding damages, or granting some...more
Why Preconstruction has Stolen the Project Spotlight - “Clients are asking for more communication, too, with owners requesting to meet the preconstruction and estimating and management teams before a project begins.” ...more
Construction contacts often include provisions that provide for pre-determined or “liquidated” damages in the event of a breach. Such provisions can provide certainty to the parties as to the consequences of a breach and can...more
Earlier this month, the State of Washington Court of Appeals affirmed a $150 million jury verdict against subcontractors involved in the disassembly of a tower crane that collapsed in 2019. The collapse, which was caught on...more
Who said legal opinions have to be boring? Not Judge Terrence L. Michael of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, who last week issued a colorful opinion rejecting a home builder’s creative claim...more
A federal court in Louisiana last week refused to enforce a limitation of liability provision included in an extra work order holding that it was trumped by the parties’ subcontract (see Planet Construction v. Gemini...more
If you ask one of the leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, ChatGPT, if you should rely on it to draft a construction contract, it responds that it is “highly recommended to hire a construction attorney rather than...more
With spring upon us, the construction industry is buzzing. As your company looks at upcoming construction projects in the pipeline, now is a great time to consider optimizing processes for efficient and effective contract...more
On April 13, 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law SB 360 (Chapter 2023-22, Laws of Florida), which shortens the time period for bringing design and construction defect claims, clarifies the application of these time...more
A hotel owner brought a lawsuit against a county transportation authority and a general contractor for nuisance and inverse condemnation alleging that the construction of an underground subway line disrupted the operation of...more