Thoughts on construction law from Christopher G. Hill, Virginia construction lawyer, LEED AP, mediator, and member of the Virginia Legal Elite in Construction Law
Here at Construction Law Musings, we are quite fond of the Federal Miller Act and it’s Virginia counterpart, the “Little” Miller Act. Both of these statutes allow a subcontractor or supplier on a government construction project the security to perform their work with the knowledge that a bonding company will back their claim for payment. These acts are necessary because a construction company cannot file a mechanic’s lien on a government owned piece of property.
As a general rule the Miller Acts impose almost strict liability on a contractor and its surety to pay for work performed by a downstream supplier or subcontractor. However, as a recent case out of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals makes clear, this rule is not without exceptions.
In US ex rel Damuth Services v. Western Surety, et al., the Virginia based federal appellate court examined a side deal between a mechanical contractor and its supplier regarding payment for equipment supplied to a project in Chesapeake, VA. In the Damuth case, the Plaintiff entered into an agreement with the mechanical subcontractor (H & L) for full payment for other work unrelated to the Chesapeake project and for payments over time until Damuth was paid in full after finding out that H & L used payments on the project to pay for work performed elsewhere. Furthermore (and this was the kicker), Dalmuth agreed not to inform the general contractor of the agreement. H & L reneged on its agreement and Damuth sued on the bond under the Miller Act.
The Court stated that, in failing to inform the general contractor and surety, Damuth participated in misleading the general and surety. The Court found that, in light of H & L’s contractual and statutory obligation to pay Damuth from funds paid to it on the project, Damuth essentially agreed to accept payment under other terms in exchange for a promise not to “rat out” H & L. This activity kept the General Contractor from being able to deal with the situation and therefore the surety did not have to pay.
The take away? Always be honest with everyone when making deals outside of the contractual chain. I would advise that you, as a subcontractor or supplier, don’t make such deals on bonded projects or at the very least keep the general contractor and surety in the loop. By keeping the general contractor and surety in the loop, you avoid looking like you are in on the scam and also give the surety a chance to protect itself by paying you or at worst having to pay you when you have to make a claim.
As always, I welcome your comments below. Please subscribe to keep up with this and other Construction Law Musings.
Here we are on Guest Post Friday and I thought that I’d take a moment to thank those that have allowed me the privilege of providing guest posts at their sites over the last few months. I always appreciate the chance to share some thoughts with readers of great blogs like the Zlien blog and ALPS411 among others. I count the folks at these and other blogs as friends and I hope that you will check out my posts there as well as the other great information found at these blogs.
This week, Musings welcomes Michelle Mangen to the Guest Post Friday fold. Michelle’s vast talents and expert skills in accounting, bookkeeping and Excel, far exceed the average virtual assistant’s scope of knowledge; thereby further enhancing not only her back-end office, but those of her clients. Extending administrative and other remote admin services to her global client base, Michelle creates personalized virtual assistant solutions for each and every client, ensuring 100% customer satisfaction, loyalty and professionalism.
Her core services are: Social Media Management: (Facebook Fan Pages, Social Bookmarking , Twitter, etc.), Aweber, WordPress site management, Bookkeeping and Excel spreadsheets. Additionally she offers administrative services as well. You can reach Michelle at www.TheVirtualAsst.comorfollow her on Twitter at @mmangen.
Larger law firms have the resources at their disposal to place expensive TV ads or billboards along the highway to garner new clients and to establish their brand. Smaller law firms could gain a competitive edge on these larger firms by taking advantage of many of the tools and resources (many free) that would enable them to dominate local search results through the use of Social Media.
By utilizing your own website as your content hub many of the following ideas could be implemented at little or no cost:
Blogging – this alone has innumerable benefits to your marketing campaign
Creating whitepapers and allowing other attorneys to use the content in a cobrand situation
Hosting a weekly or bi-weekly Q&A session around a specific topic and publishing to your website as a podcast
Submitting their practices to the many local search engine profiles (Google Local, Bing, Yahoo!, Superpages, etc.)
Participating within LinkedIn groups and the Questions & Answers area
While your gut reaction may be to avoid Facebook it’s currently the fastest growing website with the greatest increase in the 55+ and older category
Twitter
Becoming a volunteer at AllExpert.com (January 2010 had over 5.3 million unique visitors to the site according to Compete.com)
Submitting articles (or re-purposing blog posts) at sites like Ezine and GoArticles
Online press releases to sites such as PitchEngine and PRWeb
So how does an overworked attorney maximize all of these areas? One of the easiest and most effective ways would be by partnering with a Virtual Assistant who is familiar with and practices Social Media for their own business.
Here are just some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
Have a virtual assistant do the necessary research for references you would like to include on your blog (landmark cases, etc.)
Find free stock photos that can be included in your blog posts
Proof and / or edit posts before they go live
Schedule your blog posts and depending on your website platform install plugins that allow for your blog posts to be spread automatically to various platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)
Submit previous instructional blog posts to article directories
Set up and maintain all local search engine profiles
Submit press releases announcing new hires, won cases, etc.
Schedule podcast sessions and upload to website after the event
Prepare and send out monthly newsletters
Aside from the ideas mentioned above there are many more ways a Virtual Assistant could assist an attorney or small law firm to gain new clients at a cost that is minimal in comparison to pricey yellow page advertisements.
At this point you may be asking how to find a good social media virtual assistant. I’d first suggest asking your network if any work with one. If that yields no results then you can turn to Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
Once you find a virtual assistant who you feel may be suitable check out their website to see the if they have their own blog and monthly newsletter.
By just doing those few steps you will quickly narrow down the list of potential Virtual Assistants who may be able to help your firm grow its online presence.
One last thing I’d suggest to properly monitor your growth is to start with benchmark numbers on anything that can be obtained – your Google Analytics, Twitter following, LinkedIn Connections, etc. so you can document the growth you achieve through your newly established efforts.
If you would like more tips and tricks on leveraging Twitter for your business I invite you to download a free copy of an e-book I co-authored: Leveraging Your Power through Twitter. Enter code: BIZCARD at the checkout screen to receive it at no cost.
Now you’ve been given some food for thought. What other ways can you see utilizing a Virtual Assistant to grow your online presence?
As always, Michelle and I welcome your thoughts and comments below. Also, please subscribe to keep up with this and other Guest Post Friday posts.
When I started this blog back in December of 2008, I did so on a whim. I had heard that a blog was a good way to get ideas out there and that I could get some benefit, so I dove right in and charged ahead.
Before I started the blog, I had profiles in what I thought were all the “right” places, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, JDSupra, etc. but did not see much of a payoff.
All that changed shortly after I started to become active on Twitter and post regularly here at Construction Law Musings. Through these two resources, plus the exponential publication of them at LinkedIn and Facebook (not to mention posting at JDSupra) I have gained opportunities to speak, be published in print and had many other opportunities that never would have happened but for my active (and I emphasize this intentionally) participation in these forums. I now know attorneys and consultants across the country on whom I can lean for assistance.
In the last two weeks, I have presented at Kaplan University’s online seminar series (links here and here). Susan Cartier Liebel contacted me out of the blue to ask if I would join the faculty at Solo Practice University (of course I said yes), and I have made friendships both in and out of Richmond that have helped me along the way. All of this helps my construction practice “on the ground.”
I want to first say that I am glad I dove in and that I truly appreciate all of the assistance, advice and friendship that I have gotten on this journey. Without my active participation and your comments and suggestions, I would not feel the success that I feel now. I appreciate the Guest Posts, comments and participation that Musings has engendered and look forward to keeping this conversation going.
While Web 2.0 is not for everyone, I am sure enjoying the ride.
Please join this conversation and add your experiences with Web 2.0 with a comment below and subscribe to keep up with this and other Musings.
It’s that time of year again and nominations are open for the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. A lot has happened here at Construction Law Musings, not the least of which is that this “blawg” is now over three years old. This little corner of the internet has only been able to sustain this long because of you readers and I thank you. All of your comments have been insightful an educational and I truly appreciate the input. Of course, i would be remiss not to thank all of those that took the time to contribute to Guest Post Fridays to add a new perspective on an (almost) weekly basis.
Now for the shameless plug. For those who are new to the Blawg 100, this is a list of 100 blawgs that readers find interesting enough to write 500 characters (or less) about and submit the blawg link to the ABA Journal‘s editors. If you are kind enough to want to submit, please do so by September 7, 2012.
Thanks again for the readership and I look forward to continuing the conversation.
As always, I welcome your comments below. Please subscribe to keep up with this and other Construction Law Musings.
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