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.
The Schedule of Values Is Your Cash-Flow Blueprint — Here's How to Build One That Pays You Faster
Buried in every AIA pay application is a document that quietly decides how fast you get paid and how much cash you tie up. Most subcontractors treat it as paperwork. The ones who understand it protect their margin.
Read the analysis →- • The schedule of values (SOV) breaks your contract sum into line items and is the baseline every progress payment is measured against — on AIA forms G702 and G703.
- • Enough line-item detail lets you bill partial progress cleanly and get paid for exactly what you've completed, when you've completed it.
- • 'Front-loading' — weighting early line items above true cost — is common but carries real contractual and, on public jobs, legal risk.
Should You Start Work on a Letter of Intent? What Every Subcontractor Should Know Before Mobilizing
The GC sends a letter of intent and says 'get started, the contract's coming.' You buy material and put a crew on it. Then the deal changes — and now you're arguing about whether you have a contract at all.
Jul 2026Substantial Completion: The One Date That Controls Your Retainage, Warranty, and Liquidated Damages
One date on a construction project quietly starts your warranty clock, stops the liquidated-damages meter, releases retainage, and can start the statute of repose. Get it wrong and it costs you on every front.
Jul 2026Selling Materials Into Construction? The Purchase-Order Terms That Can Sink a Supplier
If you manufacture or supply materials for construction projects, you're playing by different legal rules than the subcontractors installing them — and the fine print on a purchase order can quietly hand you risk you never priced.
Jul 2026Is It Safe to Upload Your Subcontract to ChatGPT? What Subcontractors Should Know Before They Do
Pasting a contract into a general AI chatbot feels like a free, fast way to get a second opinion. Here's what actually happens to that document, and why the risk is bigger than most people realize.
Jun 2026Scope of Work and Exclusions: Closing the Gaps That Trigger Disputes
Most subcontract fights are not about money clauses — they are about what the sub did or did not agree to do. A precise scope, with explicit exclusions, is the cheapest risk control in the whole agreement.
Jun 2026Can AI Actually Review a Construction Contract Accurately? What the 2026 Research Shows
The honest answer is more nuanced than either the hype or the skepticism suggests. Here's what current, credible benchmarks actually say about AI's accuracy on legal documents — and where it still falls short.
Jun 2026The Spearin Doctrine: Who Owns Defective Plans and Specifications
When an owner hands down detailed design, it impliedly warrants that the design will work. A century-old Supreme Court rule still decides who pays when the drawings are wrong — unless the contract quietly shifts it onto you.
Jun 2026AI Contract Review vs. Hiring a Lawyer: Cost, Speed, and Accuracy Compared
Two very different ways to get a subcontract reviewed, at two very different price points and speeds. Here's an honest, numbers-based comparison — including where each one genuinely wins.
Jun 2026Material Price Escalation Clauses After the Supply-Chain Era
Fixed-price contracts assume stable material costs. When steel, copper, or lumber move 20% mid-project, the question of who absorbs it is decided by a clause most subcontractors still don't ask for.
Jun 2026The AI "Hallucination" Problem — and Why Contract Review Is a Different Case Than Legal Research
Headlines about AI inventing fake legal citations are real and growing — but they describe a different failure mode than reviewing a document you already have in hand. The distinction matters more than most coverage explains.
Jun 2026Builders Risk Insurance: What Subcontractors Should Verify Before Signing
Builders risk covers the project itself while it's under construction. Who buys it, what it excludes, and whether your work is protected are subcontract questions worth answering before the first delivery.
Jun 2026Performance and Payment Bonds: The Miller Act and Little Miller Acts
On public projects you usually can't lien the property — so the payment bond is your security. Federal and state bond statutes give subcontractors a parallel path to get paid, with strict notice and deadline rules.
Jun 2026AI Adoption in Construction and Legal Services: Where the Industry Actually Stands in 2026
Not hype, not a fad — real, measured adoption numbers from both the legal industry and construction firms show where this technology actually is right now, and where it's headed.
Jun 2026Concurrent Delay and Float Ownership: Who Gets the Time
When two delays overlap — one the owner's, one the contractor's — entitlement to time and money turns on concurrency rules and on a single contract question: who owns the float.
Jun 2026How to Find (and Vet) a Good Construction Attorney: Questions to Ask Before You Hire
Not every business attorney understands construction-specific risk. Here's a practical framework for finding one who does, and the questions that actually reveal whether they're the right fit.
Jun 2026Limitation of Liability Caps in Construction Subcontracts
A liability cap can be the difference between a bad job and a bankrupt company. Knowing when a cap protects you, when it's used against you, and what it should exclude is core contract literacy.
Jun 2026What Does a Construction Attorney Actually Cost to Review a Subcontract? A 2026 Price Guide
Real, current pricing data on what construction-specific legal review costs — by the hour, by the flat fee, and by the marketplace — so you can budget for it honestly.
Jun 2026Joint Check Agreements: Protecting Payment Down the Chain
A joint check can guarantee a supplier gets paid — or quietly strip a sub-tier of its lien rights. Whether it helps or hurts depends on which side of the check you're on and how the agreement is written.
Jun 2026Backcharges and Setoff: Defending Against Unilateral Deductions
A backcharge is the general contractor deciding you owe it money and taking it out of your next payment. Whether that deduction is legitimate or abusive comes down to notice, proof, and the contract's setoff language.
Jun 2026Lien 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.
Jun 2026When You Need a Lawyer vs. When AI-Assisted Review Is Enough: A Practical Framework
Not every contract needs the same level of scrutiny. Here's a practical way to decide which ones genuinely need an attorney's judgment, and which ones a fast, verified AI first pass can handle on its own.
Jun 2026Wrap-Up Insurance (OCIP/CCIP): Reading the Subcontract's Insurance Article
On large projects the owner or GC may insure every trade under one wrap-up policy. It can simplify coverage — or leave gaps the subcontract should address, and a credit the sub should not overlook.
May 2026The 56-Day Wait: How Payment Terms Buried in Your Subcontract Are Draining Your Cash Flow
Slow payment isn't just an annoyance — it's a documented, industry-wide cash-flow crisis, and the terms that create it are sitting in the contract you signed. Here's the data, and what to actually check for.
May 2026Pay-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 2026Retainage Caps Are Changing State by State in 2026 — Is Your Contract Language Keeping Up?
New retainage legislation is actively reshaping how much of your money a GC or owner can legally hold back — and the cap depends on where the project sits, not where your company is based.
May 2026Your Bid Assumed Last Quarter's Steel Price. Does Your Contract Have an Escalation Clause to Match?
Material prices have moved sharply and repeatedly in 2025–2026. Most subcontracts still don't have language that accounts for it — and that gap falls entirely on you.
May 2026Force Majeure in the Tariff Era: Does Your Clause Actually Cover a 50% Section 232 Tariff Hike?
Most force majeure clauses were written before 2025's tariff shocks. Here's what the standard language does and doesn't cover, and why it matters more than it used to.
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 2026Rising Insurance and Bonding Costs Are Squeezing Subcontractors — Here's What Your Contract Can Do About It
Premiums are climbing and bonding capacity is tightening for weaker balance sheets. The contract terms you accept directly affect both — often more than most subcontractors realize.
May 2026The Labor Shortage Is Changing What "Excusable Delay" Means — Is Your Contract Ready?
A genuine, documented workforce shortage is now a routine cause of project delay. Most subcontracts still don't clearly address whether that delay is excusable — or who eats the cost.
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 2026AI Is Already on Your Jobsite. Is It in Your Subcontract Yet?
GCs are using AI for scheduling, safety monitoring, and estimating — often without any contract language addressing who's liable when the AI gets it wrong. That gap is closer to home than it looks.
May 2026Why 90% of Contractors Have Walked Away From Profitable Work — and How Contract Terms Are Often the Hidden Cause
A striking 2026 survey found the overwhelming majority of mid-size contractors have turned down good, profitable work — not because the work wasn't worth doing, but because of cash-flow timing they couldn't absorb.
May 2026Construction Contract Red Flags: A Subcontractor's Checklist Before You Sign
A practical, no-jargon checklist of the specific clauses and phrases that should make you stop and read carefully before signing a GC's paper — the ones that experienced reviewers check first.
May 2026Mechanic's Lien Activity Is Falling in 2026 — What a Cooling Market Means for Your Payment Risk
A leading construction lien index just hit its lowest level since 2022. Here's what that actually signals about payment risk right now, and why it doesn't mean you can relax on lien rights.
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 2026How Long Does a Contract Review Really Take — and Why Speed Matters More Than Ever in 2026
The time a contract sits waiting for review isn't a neutral delay — it has a real, calculable cost in a business where cash flow is already stretched thin. Here's the actual math.
Apr 2026The Hidden Cost of Rubber-Stamping GC Contracts: What "No Time to Review" Really Costs Subcontractors
Signing under deadline pressure without a careful read feels like the pragmatic choice in the moment. The dispute data suggests it's actually one of the more expensive habits in the industry.
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