News Archive

The Ohio Supreme Court has again ruled that owners, contractors and subcontractors in Ohio have little protection from construction defects. The construction industry has long relied upon Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) policies to protect against personal injury or property damage losses, including those flowing from construction defects. Large premiums are paid every year to the […]

Many in the industry commonly utilized the AIA documents, often with significant revisions. The core of many of these documents are the AIA General Conditions (A201) with the parties frequently using the 2007 version as a starting point. AIA typically modifies its contract documents every ten (10) years and released its latest edition of the […]

Subcontractors are often asked to sign a subcontract giving the general contractor the right to, in its sole discretion, choose arbitration or litigation to resolve subcontract disputes. Many view these clauses as unfair, and whether such clauses are even enforceable is not settled, which means that state and federal courts across the country have come […]

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 Decision authored by Justice Gorsuch recently found in favor of employer (not employee) rights when enforcing arbitration agreements. The Supreme Court ruled that employees could not ignore individual arbitration agreements and band together to challenge wage and hour or other labor law violations. The Court pointed out that […]

More and more construction contracts are CM-at-risk contracts with a Guaranteed Maximum Price (“GMP”). Contractors and Owners are increasingly relying upon a “cost plus with a GMP” format, such as the AIA A133 form, as a fair way to allocate risk. This is particularly true when the design drawings are evolving in the early days […]