A recent court case reminded all contractors, especially those working in the paving and asphalt industry, of the importance of conditioning bids and contract prices on a reasonable time to complete their work. A Tennessee appellate court held a paving contractor responsible for a bid it submitted to an owner almost a decade prior, despite […]
Legal Insights Archive
5 Things I Learned in 2015
While I have been practicing construction law for 33 years, I subscribe to the theory that One is never too old to learn.” Here is my personal list of lessons learned in 2015: 1. Lawyers Need To Spend More Time On Damages. On a traditional complicated construction claim it is not unusual to spend 90% […]
Five Killer Contract Clauses You Might Have Missed
Many of us have written articles on the most onerous (“Killer”) contract clauses encountered today, including “pay-if-paid,” “no lien” and other unfair provisions. But there has been much less focus on more obscure contract clauses that may not sound so bad – but can be crippling in their own right. Here are a few that […]
Lessons from “Stonewall” Jackson: Five Keys To Success
Being a construction attorney is more than knowing and applying the law. We are here not only to provide you with the best legal advice possible, but also to help your company succeed. With that goal in mind, I wanted to write briefly about a topic that might not seem immediately relevant, but I am […]
Time for Change: Why the practice of retainage is in need of significant reform.
Why Does Retainage Exist? As subcontractors know all too well, retainage is an owner’s or higher-tier contractor’s practice of holding a predetermined percentage from each progress payment to the next-lower tier of subcontractors, and releasing the retained amounts only when a milestone such as “substantial completion” is reached. This practice has a dramatic effect on […]