Construction Law Blog

Enactment of new statutory language directly addressing the impact of pay-when-paid provisions in Virginia will become effective January 1, 2023.

Construction industry professionals faced a number of challenges in 2019—chief among them a persistent labor shortage. 2020 promises to bring similar challenges to the construction industry. Below we identify six trends we expect to carry forward into the new year.

The 2019 General Assembly bill, supported by the Hirschler Construction Law Team, that would have created a five-year statute of limitations on public projects, hit a roadblock during the 2019 Session when the House Appropriations Committee requested that the Department of General Services (DGS) conduct a study of the bill over the summer and fall of this year. After considering the findings of a recent survey and series of town hall meetings, the DGS is expected to issue a report by December 31, 2019.  In our latest post we discuss the survey findings and our own town hall participation which will impact the DGS’s report.

We have previously written about the Hensel Phelps case here and here and the result in that case arising from the Commonwealth’s complete immunity on state jobs from the normal five-year contract statute of limitations (in Hensel Phelps, a state agency was allowed to bring suit against a general contractor fourteen years after substantial completion). A recent Supreme Court of Virginia case arising in a different context highlights the need for either: (1) the General Assembly to change this law allowing the Commonwealth to bring stale lawsuits; or (2) general contractors to ...

The 2019 General Assembly adjourned on February 24, 2019, and the reconvened veto session adjourned on April 3, 2019.

All three of the bills discussed in our previous post – HB1667, SB1028, and SB272 – failed to pass this year. Although it ultimately failed to pass, House Bill 1667, which would have created a statute of limitations on public construction projects, made substantial progress in the General Assembly this year. The bill was voted out of its subcommittee, and Hirschler's own Webb Moore testified before the House Courts of Justice Committee, explaining to committee ...

President Donald Trump recently signed Executive Order No. 13858, entitled Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects. It is intended to encourage companies that receive federal financial assistance for infrastructure projects to use certain products manufactured in the United States. This Order expands the types of projects previously covered to now include many energy projects, and greatly increases the types of American products that contractors are encouraged to incorporate.

The Order, signed on January 31, 2019, directs the heads of ...

Providing construction labor or materials to the federal government raises a host of issues that are not present in private or state projects. Prime contracts with the federal government subject companies to numerous federal regulations. While subcontractors and suppliers have less direct obligations to the federal government, there still are several laws to consider. In this blog we discuss five significant considerations all subcontractors or suppliers on federal projects should keep in mind during a project.

1. Rights to Payment. Subcontractors and suppliers can utilize ...