Construction law, in plain English.
The contract and construction-law issues that decide who gets paid and who carries the risk — written for the contractors and subcontractors who live with the consequences.
Lien Waivers: Conditional vs. Unconditional, Partial vs. Final
Signing the wrong lien waiver can release security for money you haven't actually received — and some states prescribe forms you can't lawfully alter.
Read the analysis →- • Conditional waivers take effect only when payment actually clears; unconditional ones take effect immediately.
- • Partial waivers cover a specific progress payment; final waivers release all remaining rights.
- • Never sign an unconditional final waiver before final payment has cleared.
Pay-If-Paid vs. Pay-When-Paid: What Subcontractors Must Know in 2026
The two clauses look almost identical but allocate the owner's credit risk very differently — and roughly a dozen states now refuse to enforce the harsher version outright.
May 2026Indemnification Clauses and the Anti-Indemnity Statutes That Limit Them
Broad-form indemnity can make a subcontractor pay for another party's own negligence — but 46 states now restrict, by statute, how far that risk-shift can go.
May 2026Preserving Your Mechanic's Lien Rights: The Deadlines That Kill Claims
A mechanic's lien is the subcontractor's strongest security — but it is governed by unforgiving, state-specific notice and filing deadlines that forfeit the right if missed.
May 2026Retainage in 2026: Caps, Release Triggers, and the Reform Trend
Retainage protects owners but ties up a contractor's earned profit — and statutory caps and faster-release rules keep expanding, including California's new 5% private-project cap.
Apr 2026Prompt Payment Acts: Statutory Deadlines and Interest You Can Enforce
Federal and state prompt-payment statutes set hard deadlines for paying down the contracting chain — and impose interest, sometimes near 8–9%, when those deadlines are missed.
Apr 2026No-Damages-for-Delay Clauses and Their Limits
These clauses bar recovery of delay costs — but courts recognize important exceptions, and some states limit or void them, especially on public work.
Apr 2026Liquidated Damages or Unenforceable Penalty?
Liquidated damages are enforceable only if they are a reasonable pre-estimate of harm — not a club to punish delay. The line decides whether a daily rate sticks.
Apr 2026Flow-Down Clauses: Inheriting Terms You Never Negotiated
Incorporation-by-reference can bind a subcontractor to the entire prime contract — including obligations it has never seen and never priced.
Mar 2026AIA vs. ConsensusDocs: Choosing and Reading the Standard Forms
The two dominant form families allocate risk differently. Knowing the baseline tells you exactly what a modification is really doing.
Mar 2026Additional Insured and Waiver of Subrogation: The Insurance Traps
Insurance clauses can quietly require coverage your program doesn't provide — creating uninsured contractual obligations that surface years later.
Mar 2026Change Orders and the Cardinal Change Doctrine
Get the change-order process right, or risk performing extra work you can never collect for — and know the doctrine that protects you when changes go too far.
Mar 2026Differing Site Conditions: Who Pays for the Surprises Underground?
A differing site conditions clause decides whether unexpected subsurface conditions are the contractor's problem or the owner's — and disclaimers can shift the risk right back.
Feb 2026Termination for Convenience: Protecting Your Recovery
A termination-for-convenience clause lets the other side walk away without cause — make sure you're made whole when they do, and that a failed for-cause termination can't be downgraded to cap your damages.
Feb 2026Force Majeure Clauses After a Decade of Disruption
Supply-chain shocks, labor shortages, and extreme weather have made force majeure language a front-line negotiation point — and a generic clause may not cover the events that actually hit.
Feb 2026Notice Provisions: The Silent Claim-Killer
The strongest claim on the merits is worthless if the contract's notice deadline was missed — and many courts enforce notice as a strict condition precedent.
Feb 2026Mutual Waivers of Consequential Damages
A mutual consequential-damages waiver caps the tail risk that can dwarf the contract value itself — but the line between direct and consequential damages is fiercely litigated.
Jan 2026Arbitration vs. Litigation: Choosing the Forum Before You Need It
The dispute-resolution clause decides where, how, and at what cost a future fight will play out — long before any dispute arises, and usually when no one is paying attention.
Jan 2026Prevailing Wage and Davis-Bacon: Compliance That Can't Be an Afterthought
On public and publicly funded work, wage-and-hour compliance carries strict obligations and serious penalties — including back wages, liquidated damages, and debarment.
Jan 2026Limitations vs. Repose: The Two Clocks on Construction Defect Claims
Two different deadlines govern how long a contractor's exposure for defects lasts — and they run from different events, with contract terms able to extend both.
Jan 2026