Often a general contractor is caught in the middle of a subcontractor claim that is caused by the acts or omissions of the Owner/Designer. In these instances, the general contractor is protected by its conditional payment clause but needs to pursue the legitimate claim of its subcontractor. In a traditional setting, the subcontractor would sue…
Author Archives: Kevin Hudson
General Contractor Law – Rights and Responsibilities When a Subcontractor Files Bankruptcy
What are a General Contractor’s Rights and Responsibilities When a Subcontractor Files for Bankruptcy? One critical misconception is that a subcontractor’s bankruptcy means that it is going out of business. A bankruptcy by a subcontractor may actually be the method by which the subcontractor continues to operate. For many businesses, the legal process of bankruptcy…
Construction Law – Dangers of Green Construction Building Codes
1. The Classic Framework: LEED Certification as Voluntary and Incentive Driven. Historically, the most successful green initiatives were those driven by tax abatements and credits, expedited permitting, density incentives, utility credits and other Owner based incentives.. The majority if these initiatives came through the U.S. Green Building Council rating system for Leadership in Energy and…
Construction Law – Bad Faith Expansion
The attached case is a great victory for the general contractor, and it also shows the merits of pursuing even a small claim, if there are grounds to prove bad faith. The highlights include the use of bad faith in the context of the ongoing contract, as opposed to the original contract formation, to award…
Construction Law – Create Consensus
New Provisions of the AIA’s Consensus Documents Shift the Claims Burden onto the Contractor. Owners commonly use the American Institute of Architects’ documents as the blueprint for construction contracts with contractors. Yet, the blueprint continues to change and those changes appear more and more slanted against contractors, as demonstrated by the newest AIA 2007 documents….
Construction Law – Riskier Business
Big Dig Settlement Shows How Changes to Construction Contracts Have Unexpected Consequences. Beginning with the 1987 set of construction documents, which were generally viewed as acceptable to most contractors, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) began a process of revising its construction documents every 10 years. Each revision has yielded more provisions that were unacceptable…
Construction Law – Safety Insured
Safety, Insured Balancing Insurance and Indemnification Agreements Can Mitigate Risk in Utility Projects. The wireless revolution is in full force, and to meet growing demand for cellular phones and data devices, wireless companies are scrambling for new cellular tower sites. Power companies are also scrambling to keep up. The surge of new construction related to…
Construction Law – Immigration Labor Laws
Seeing Both Sides: When It Comes to the Work Force Shortage, Is Immigration Reform a Viable Solution? The construction industry has a long and true history of promoting minorities in the workplace. Despite troubled economic times, many areas of the construction industry continue to expand rapidly and some estimates suggest that construction constitutes 10 percent…
Construction Law – Public Private Partnerships
Neglected Infrastructure Is Taking Its Toll. Could Public-Private Partnerships Offer a Fix? We may use other, less academic terms to refer to them, but we all deal with infrastructure problems on a daily basis. We all hate sitting in traffic or driving on deteriorating roads. How many times have you thought, “If only the public…
Construction Law – Preventing Safety Non-compliance through a Team Approach
The single largest cause of safety non-compliance is inattention to safety details on the part of the individual worker. This inattention generally results from the repetitive nature of most work performed by the worker and the natural comfort that comes from repetitive action. Even for the experienced worker, such comfort is false at best, as…