Construction Law Blog

Recent Virginia cases underscore the importance of including a prevailing party attorneys’ fees provision in any construction contract and make clear that a court cannot simply calculate a prevailing party’s attorney fee award based upon the amount of damages sought.

One-third of Virginia’s business owners may be misclassifying employees as independent contractors. How can you avoid this same mistake?

A recent New Hampshire case shows that all indemnification provisions are not equal. Without careful drafting, a party may be required to indemnify another party even before any allegations of negligence are proven in court.

Your company has been named an additional insured on a certificate of insurance. Is that enough? Possibly not. This blog shares how a New York court recently declared that a construction manager was not an additional insured despite being named on a certificate of insurance.

The 2017 Virginia General Assembly has enacted several laws that affect public procurement and professional regulation.

As foundational as contracts are to the construction industry, many fail to recognize when they have entered into a contract. Misunderstandings about when a contract is legally formed and how it will be enforced can lead to significant obstacles in the event of a dispute. In the following brief Q&A, we examine some common misconceptions and discuss the principles that courts would apply when ruling on contract formation.

Employers faced with possible OSHA violations often want to shift blame to an unruly employee. This is called the defense of “unpreventable employee misconduct.” An employer is not relieved of responsibility simply because an employee did not follow the rules. In order to assert this defense effectively, an employer should take note of these four tips.

Not too many companies are doing work today on a handshake agreement. Yet many companies fail to document changes that occur on a project.

Many design and construction contracts and subcontracts contain a “waiver of subrogation” provision in the contract’s “Insurance Requirements” section. But what exactly is “subrogation” and what does it mean to “waive” subrogation rights?

The Virginia General Assembly and Governor Terry McAuliffe have proposed a change to the state historic rehabilitation tax credit program that could affect real estate development statewide. The bill was introduced after a Senate panel killed Senator Glen Sturtevant’s proposed bills to cap and phase out state historic tax and other credits.

HB 2460 would take effect for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2017, but before January 1, 2019. The proposed changes provide that the amount of annual state historic tax credit each taxpayer uses may not exceed $5 million. The ...