Who Says Actions Speak Louder Than Words?

Contractors who work in the public works arena are aware that under California Civil Code section 3247 [which will be recodified at Civil Code section 9550…

Arbitration Provision in Construction Contract Not Void Simply Because Contractor Was Unlicensed at the Time it Entered into Contract

With state and federal courts increasingly backlogged with cases, contracting parties are more frequently including alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provisions in their contracts as a way…

Recording of Lis Pendens Does Not Constitute Slander of Title Even Where Lis Pendens is Expunged

A colleague of mine has a jackalope mounted on the wall of his office. A jackalope, if you haven’t seen one before, is a combination of…

Failure to Request Extension of Project Schedule No Defense to Liquidated Damages . . . Even for Delays Not Caused by the Contractor

If you have ever worked on a public works project you have probably run across a liquidated damage clause in your contract. Such clauses, which are…

Objective, Not Subjective Standard, Determines Good Faith Disputes Under Prompt Payment Statutes

California has several nearly identical statutes scattered across multiple code sections that require public and private owners to promptly pay progress and retention payments to their…

Scope of Work, Not Contract, Governs License Requirements

Attorneys spend a lot of time parsing words, both to ensure that the words that they use convey what they mean, and to determine what others…

What’s In a Name?

“What’s in a name?” This was the question posed in a recent case decided by the California Court of Appeals involving a contractor doing business under the fictitious…