Thoughts on construction law from Christopher G. Hill, Virginia construction lawyer, LEED AP, mediator, and member of the Virginia Legal Elite in Construction Law
For this week’s Guest Post Friday post here at Construction Law Musings, we welcome back Matt Bouchard. Matt is a partner with Lewis & Roberts, PLLC in Raleigh, North Carolina. For over ten years his practice has focused on representing the interests of contractors, sureties and owners in connection with commercial construction projects. You can follow his blog, “N.C. Construction Law, Policy & News.” You can also follow him on Twitter @MattBouchardEsq.
Final completion.
The ultimate milestone for any construction project. The date when the owner accepts the finished facility, assumes legal responsibility for the work and renders final payment to the contracting team that built it. An occasion for ribbon-cutting and photo opportunities, and perhaps for evaluating lessons learned. A time for moving on, maybe a little wearier, maybe a little wiser, and probably a bit of both.
For this week’s Guest Post Friday here at Construction Law Musings, we welcome a friend and sometime co-presenter Craig Martin. Craig (@craigmartin_jd) is a partner in the law firm of Lamson Dugan and Murray, LLP in Omaha, Nebraska. He has a background and experience in all aspects of construction law. As part of his practice he counsels contractors, subcontractors, developers, owners, materials suppliers and design professionals in various construction disputes. He also successfully represents them in both State and Federal courts. Craig’s business goal is to provide cost-effective and distinguished counsel to the construction industry. Craig also authors the Construction Contractor Advisor blog.
This last year was the year for the courts to decide whether a defective construction claim was covered by your Commercial General Liability (CGL) Policy. While you might typically think that the answer to the question lies in the policy itself, a number of recent court cases reveal that it may also depend on the state in which a claim is litigated. As explained below, a number of state courts have entered opinions that interpret CGL policies and have come to very different conclusions.
For this week’s Guest Post Friday post here at Construction Law Musings, we welcome first time poster Matt Bouchard. Matt is a partner with Lewis & Roberts, PLLC in Raleigh, North Carolina. For over ten years his practice has focused on representing the interests of contractors, sureties and owners in connection with commercial construction projects. You can follow his blog, “N.C. Construction Law, Policy & News.” You can also follow him on Twitter @MattBouchardEsq.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided last week not to review the November 2011 decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court upholding Minnesota legislation that resurrects long-extinguished design defect liability.
The high court’s refusal to consider Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. v. State of Minnesota was disappointing to the Associated General Contractors of America, American Society of Civil Engineers and other construction organizations who had asked the court to consider whether retroactive revival of latent defect liability after the applicable statute of repose had expired violated constitutional due process principles. Construction industry risk managers are now left to pick up the pieces and figure out ways to manage what might be called “retroactive claim revival risk” going forward.
Mr. Peterson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Technology from the University of Wyoming, completing a Masters in Christian Liberal Arts from Chambers College, and taught high school Electronics and Applied Physics.
Mr. Peterson has been married for 32 years to his wife Lorrie and they have two grown daughters.
As many of you are aware, there is generally a long tail of construction defect claims that follow an economic boom. A manifestation of that cycle occurred after the economy fell in 2008. The International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), reported in 2011 that we spent $3 billion in Construction Defect claims in 2010 alone – that we know of. Many forensic engineers and architects believe that number is probably 10x that as many a CD claim never gets filed or simply gets settled before it goes to court.
For this week’s Guest Post Friday, Musings is lucky enough to have my pal Chris Cheatham of Green Building Law Update and his newly launched Construction Claims Playbook join us for a second time. Chris’ (@chrischeatham) law practice provides claims guidance to contractors. His mission is to deliver cost-effective counsel to the construction industry. Chris has worked at some of the largest law firms in the country for some of the biggest companies in the world and he will apply this experience to your next construction legal issue.
When I was a child, my parents and I traveled every summer to a little town called Bolivar, Missouri, where my mom grew up. I wrote a story about why I loved the town — the fishing, the doughnut shop, my grandparents. The article was published on the front page of the local newspaper. I have been hooked on storytelling ever since.
Thankfully, as a construction attorney, I get the opportunity to tell construction stories. While there are important elements and mechancs that go into any legal document, storytelling is the heart of a construction claim. If your narrative — or story — does not convince your reader to take your side, it’s unlikely that your claim will succeed no matter how sound your arguments.
But how exactly do you tell the story of a construction project?
Nick Morgan’s recent article about the key elements of storytelling articulates many aspects that are difficult to teach, but essential, to a persuasive story. The elements can be extrapolated to the writing of a construction narrative:
