Construction Law & Litigation

• 12/04/00 Differing Site Conditions—Expecting the Unexpected An owner typically does not want the contractor to bear all of the risk of differing site conditions because of the owner's fear that the contractor will inflate its bid or include contingencies in its price to account for the possibility of differing site conditions that may not actually exist.
• 12/04/00 An Owner’s Guide to Related Claims Whether an owner recovers, absorbs, or becomes liable to the contractor for costs associated with time impacts largely depends upon the specific events causing the time impact and the terms of the contract.
• 12/01/09 Building Green … Required by Law Over the past several years, owners have required that the design and construction management firms they retain have the expertise to build green. Now, a growing trend calls for design and CM firms to become even more proficient in the delivery of green buildings.
• 02/18/09 March is Just Around the Corner: Move the Clocks Forward and Change Your Lien Forms The 2008 Georgia legislature has thrown the construction industry a curveball in the form of significant changes to the lien law. The revised lien statute does not go into effect until March 31, 2009, but some of the changes affect projects that begin before that date, so those who deal with lien issues need to be familiar with the changes or risk a loss of rights.
• 04/01/08 Building Information Modeling: What’s Ahead for Contractors Some are referring to building information modeling, or "BIM," as "revolutionary" to the construction industry. This may be hype. The technology that Building Information Modeling relies upon is not new, as it has been used in the manufacturing industry for product design since the 1980s. BIM will, however, precipitate meaningful change in the construction industry as it becomes more commonly used as a method of project delivery.
• 03/01/05 Lien Law: Use It or Lose It Picture this. Your company has just completed construction of its new corporate headquarters. You are ready to make final payment to your contractor of $100,000 and convert your construction financing into a lower cost permanent loan. Although your understanding was that everyone had been paid, subcontractors and suppliers have recorded lien claims against the project in excess of half a million dollars, and your contractor says he's broke.
• 10/01/03 Rebuilding Iraq: How Much Risk is Too Much? In what can only be described as a global feeding frenzy, companies from around the world are jockeying for position and the chance to land a contract for a piece of the reconstruction pie in Iraq.
• 12/01/02 Move Over AIA: There’s a New Standard Form Construction Contract for Owners and Developers Coming this fall, the Associated Owners and Developers (AOD) will release a new standard form construction contract that promises to change dramatically the way the construction industry uses, negotiates and views standard form agreements.