Last weekend we played Speak-Out: Kids versus Parents, a game where you use a plastic thingy to obstruct your speech capabilities.  The winning team is the one that guesses the most phrases.  Reading and understanding an insurance policy on a construction project can be a lot like understanding my kids playing Speak Out.

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Our middle child of seven kids suffers from classic Middle Child Syndrome.  She has the largest heart in the family, and yet every other minute is a moment of devastation, wrought with feelings of neglect, resentfulness and sadness.  We love her and we have empathy, but—like government contractors who sometimes feel burned—there are no devastation

You don’t always say what you mean. And you don’t always mean what you say.  In construction contracts, parties attempt to use plain and ordinary words to describe their respective obligations.

As an example, when the parties use the word “shall” in their agreement, they generally understand that the obligation specified is mandatory. Or

I read in my Twitter feed this morning about a recent case where the Missouri Court of Appeals formally adopted the Spearin Doctrine.

I immediately wondered if I could explain the Spearin Doctrine in less than 140 characters.  Here you go:

US v. Spearin: Owner designs. Contractor builds. Owner accepts. Work sucks. Owner sues. Contractor

It’s not everyday that you read about one of your longtime heroes, the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”), losing some of its mojo.  The Nash & Cibinic Report read as follows: “The FAR: Does It Have Contractual Force and Effect?”

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According to the article, there remains some confusion about the application of the FAR based upon

With all the talk about billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure and sweeping reversal of prior executive orders affecting construction labor and federal contracts, it should come as no surprise that President Trump’s recent executive orders on immigration may have an affect on the construction industry.

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What Happened?  Beginning on January 25, 2017, the