As a construction attorney, I have been on both the sending side and receiving side of a request for a time extension. In the construction world of competitive bidding, however, the request for an extension can create problems. Today’s post illustrates one of those problems.
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Legal Trends
Mechanics Lien and Bond Claims Best Practices
While I generally limit my guest posts to my fellow law partners, I simply could not resist sharing with you today’s post from my friend and construction attorney, Scott Wolfe, Jr., which focuses on Best Practices for filing mechanics liens and bond claims.
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Federal Courts Not in the Business of Cleaning Up Language on Construction Sites
We all have preconceptions about the language you might find on the construction project. However, it is not every day that you read a court opinion and you find the following language: "…nor is it the business of the federal courts generally to clean up the language and conduct of construction sites." This came from…
Court or Arbitrator: Who Decides Statute of Limitations Issues?
You can imagine that with seven young children in our house, there are a substantial number of arguments on any given day. When both my wife and I are at home, the question becomes, Who decides disputes: Mom or Dad? In the construction arena, the same types of questions arise.

Recently, in Bechtel Do …
Google Scholar Provides Outstanding Preliminary Legal Research
It has been almost three years since the giant (…Google…) joined the legal research playing field with Westlaw, LEXIS, FindLaw and all the other law-related databases. Today’s post is about how a Google Scholar search can be used for legal research.
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Tennessee Adopts E-Verify in Stages and with Safe Harbor Changes
I received an email last week from Kent Starwalt of the Tennessee Road Builders Association about the applicability of E-Verify, which varies by jurisdiction, and the recent changes to the law in Tennessee. Today’s post reviews those changes and reminds you to check your particular state’s law on the issue……
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Are Electronic Toll Collection Systems Subject to Competitive Bidding?
I was working in our Virginia office this past week and was amazed at the amount of highway construction at and around Tyson’s Corner. What also caught my attention was the progress of the 495 Express Lanes project, which includes the construction of high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes that will operate on the I-495/Capital Beltway.…
Tennessee Adopts New “Loser Pays” Rule
Today’s guest post is by J. Matthew Kroplin, a fellow attorney at Stites & Harbison PLLC. Matthew is a member of the Business Litigation and Creditors’ Rights & Bankruptcy Service Groups. He represents and advises clients in the areas of business and commercial litigation, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, and construction law. Matthew has represented a…
2011 Construction Law Update Is Available
One of the largest groups for construction lawyers is the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry. In the weeks leading up to to the Forum’s 2012 annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada last month, a number of construction attorneys and I were feverishly reviewing submissions for Division 10’s annual Construction Law Update. …
Digital Databases: The Legal Implications of Harnessing Knowledge
A recent ENR headline caught my attention: “Structural Engineers Learn Lessons From Failures Through Digital Databases.” The article by Nadine Post discussed a new digital database—similar to YouTube, SharePoint and Wikipedia—being developed by structural engineers to “harness knowledge” to avoid future loses.

As noted in Post’s article, “[w]ith global engineering research, knowledge and failure…