Contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers should start thinking very hard as to what their cash flow might be after July 1, of this year. If a budget is not approved by the legislature by that time and some emergency measures employed, many of you may not be paid even though you may have completed your work.
There are many legal issues involved in such a matter. However, if emergency measures are not put in place by our government, there could very well be many people or companies who will not get paid timely, only because of our inept Legislature.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Site Inspections
Site inspections are used extensively in construction cases. This is both during construction and sometime thereafter if there is a dispute.
If you have a dispute with your customer, and you have not taken pictures or some other means of verifying that the work you had done was done correctly, then a site inspection is appropriate. We suggest that you photograph your work during construction so that you can verify what you did.
That is to say that the parties and the trier of fact, the one making the decision as to whether the work was done appropriately, visit the site and argue over whether the work was done correctly or not. Unfortunately, quite often, either in arbitration or litigation, you may not have the opportunity to conduct a site inspection and therefore, would have very little proof that the work you did was done correctly.
Therefore, we suggest that any time you get involved in a dispute and are going to someone to determine whether the work that you did was done correctly, you should demand that a site inspection be part of the determination of the dispute. You should do this early on so that you can demand a site inspection early.
If you have a dispute with your customer, and you have not taken pictures or some other means of verifying that the work you had done was done correctly, then a site inspection is appropriate. We suggest that you photograph your work during construction so that you can verify what you did.
That is to say that the parties and the trier of fact, the one making the decision as to whether the work was done appropriately, visit the site and argue over whether the work was done correctly or not. Unfortunately, quite often, either in arbitration or litigation, you may not have the opportunity to conduct a site inspection and therefore, would have very little proof that the work you did was done correctly.
Therefore, we suggest that any time you get involved in a dispute and are going to someone to determine whether the work that you did was done correctly, you should demand that a site inspection be part of the determination of the dispute. You should do this early on so that you can demand a site inspection early.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Federal Arbitration Act and California Law
What happens when the parties agree to conduct their arbitration in accordance with California law, yet there are triable issues that are not subject to arbitration? This becomes a problem in that you could end up with conflicting decisions. In this case, there was a denial of the request for arbitration and the appellate court said that this was not an abuse of discretion.
In addition, in this case, the general contractor failed to pay the full sum due and building inspectors hindered the subcontractor in its work. The general contractor, subcontractor, and owner, were parties to arbitration agreements, but the building inspectors were not. That created a risk of inconsistent decisions based on conflicting conclusions.
In addition, in this case, the general contractor failed to pay the full sum due and building inspectors hindered the subcontractor in its work. The general contractor, subcontractor, and owner, were parties to arbitration agreements, but the building inspectors were not. That created a risk of inconsistent decisions based on conflicting conclusions.
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