Mechanic's Liens in D.C.

On private, unbonded work, the mechanic's lien can be the remedy of last resort to to contractor or supplier who has not been paid.  Understanding the technical requirements for perfecting and enforcing a mechanic's lien is critical to the successful use of this important remedy.  Mechanic's Liens in the District of Columbia reviews the notice, filing and related requirements of D.C.'s lien law and the defenses to the enforcement of a lien available to owners, lenders and title companies.

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Mechanic's Liens in Maryland

On private, unbonded work, the mechanic's lien can be the remedy of last resort to contractor or supplier who has not been paid.  Understanding the technical requirements for perfecting and enforcing a mechanic's lien is critical to the successful use of this important remedy.  Mechanic's Liens in Maryland reviews the notice, filing and related requirements of Maryland's lien law and the defenses to the enforcement of a lien available to owners, lenders and title companies.

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Courts and Legislatures Review Conditional Payment Clauses
 

With the increasing use of conditional payment ("pay-if-paid") clauses, state courts and legislatures have begun to interpret and establish the conditions under which such clauses will be enforced. This publication reviews conditional precedent payment clauses and offers contractors and subcontractors valuable advice in how to draft and interpret such clauses and understand the exceptions to conditional payment provisions.

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Individual State's Positions on Conditional Payment Clauses in Construction Subcontracts  

This publication provides a state-by-state summary of the law on conditional payment clauses and the enforcement of such clauses.

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Build-Operate-Transfer: The Future of Public Construction?

With federal, state, local and foreign governments' budgets increasingly strained by hefty deficits, the prospect that sufficient public funding can be found for the timely construction of much-needed public facilities and infrastructure seems ever more dim. There is, however, a strategy for disconnecting public construction from public funding that is gaining attention around the world. Known widely as build-operate-transfer, or "BOT," contractors should be aware that this contracting method could profoundly affect the future of public construction.

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Concrete Answers to Ten Legal Questions

The discovery of workmanship problems in concrete work often comes at a time when it is very difficult and expensive to correct the defects.  What to Do When the Concrete Job Goes Sour examines, in the first instance, how to avoid defective concrete work and secondly, the various responsibilities and liabilities of the parties involved in a concrete project, that is, the owner, the architect, the engineer, the testing agency, the general contractor and the concrete subcontractor.  Special attention is paid to warranty obligations and risks assumed under concrete specifications.

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Risk Management Begins with Your Contract

In the construction industry, effective risk management begins with the construction contract as the contract is the most important vehicle for risk allocation used by the industry.

To be successful at risk management, the parties to a construction contract must understand what the various contract provisions intend to achieve in allocating risks among the parties. Risk Management Begins With Your Contract helps you understand more than twenty standard form contract provisions, and their exceptions, so that you can better
appreciate the risks created by these provisions and how these risks are allocated to the parties.


Abandoning the Job: When to Take the Risk

Costly and disputed changes, innumerable performance delays, a difficult owner and poor documents: when these problems occur, the temptation to simply walk-off the job can be overwhelming.  However, abandoning the job poses significant risks to the contractor, the greatest of which is the danger of being in default.  How can the frustrated contractor evaluate a difficult job to decide whether abandonment is a real option?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking this risk?  Abandoning the Job: When to Take the Risk focuses on the rare but dangerous step of abandonment.

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Design/Build: Drafting the Plan

Contractors interested in becoming design-builders need to understand the significant differences in risk allocation between design-build work and traditional lump-sum construction, as well as the regulatory environment which governs design-build projects.  Design/Build: Drafting the Plan reviews the key differences between today's design-build environment and traditional contracting so that the design-builder is better prepared to manage the unique risks associated with this popular procurement method.

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Contractual Risk Transfer

The indemnification clause is a standard feature of virtually every construction contract, whether prime contract or subcontract.  The risks presented by indemnification are not well understood by contractors and subcontractors and far too few in the industry focus on the indemnification clause in the documents they negotiate.  Contractual Risk Transfer examines the different type of indemnification clauses and the underlying legal principles, and offers practical tips for negotiating fair indemnity clauses and managing the risks presented by indemnification when an injury or loss occurs.

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"Pay-When-Paid" and "Pay-if-Paid" or Something Else?

Timely payment is the most fundamental obligation under any construction subcontract.  More and more often today, the risk of owner nonpayment often is shifted in the subcontract from the general contractor to the subcontractor.  Pay When Paid examines the legal requirements which govern the ability of a general contractor to shift the risk of nonpayment to its subcontractors.  Subcontractors will learn how to recognize legally effective risk-shifting clauses and to negotiate these clauses to a win-win solution.  Pay When Paid includes a review, on a state-by-state basis, of the law pertaining to condition precedent payment.  Contractors reading Pay When Paid will learn how to create, interpret, negotiate and administer condition precedent payment clauses.

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"Payment Bonds: Collecting on What You Are Owed"

On public projects, the payment bond required of the prime contractor is often the best (and perhaps only) remedy for subcontractors and suppliers who are not paid. Understanding how payment bonds work, notice requirements and the surety’s defenses is critical to the success of a bond claim. Payment Bonds: Collecting What You Are Owed explains how these important bonds work and what options are available to the claimant where the payment bond surety becomes insolvent or the bond was never provided.

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"The Design Professional’s Liability to the Contractor"

The architect/engineer performs a vital role in the construction process upon which the contractor's efficient performance depends. The A/E prepares the drawings and specifications, reviews submittals, inspects the progress of the work, certifies progress payment requisitions, determines substantial completion, etc. Sometimes these duties are improperly performed, or not performed in a timely manner, as the result of which the contractor incurs increased costs.

Traditionally, the contractor could only recover increased performance costs from the owner, rather than directly from the A/E. “The Design Professional’s Liability to the Contractor” provides valuable information important to the contractor to ensure the architect/engineer fulfills the duties owed to the contractor and other third-parties.

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