Construction projects can be complex and involve many moving parts, personnel, and equipment that need to be skillfully coordinated so that all of the pieces come together to create a finished product. With over 35 years of combined experience focused exclusively on the construction industry, PLDR’s Construction Law Group can assist you with any and all of your construction needs and issues. To keep pace with constantly evolving legal developments and challenges of the construction industry, we are dedicated members of construction trade groups and construction law groups, including the Associated Builders & Contractors (“ABC”), the Associated General Contractors (“AGC”), the Construction and Public Contracts Law Sections of the Virginia State Bar, and the Virginia Bar Association.
In all aspects of construction projects, PLDR’s Construction Law Group strives to provide sound and reliable advice, aggressive representation of our clients, and a focus on strategies and tactics geared toward the efficient and effective resolution of our clients’ challenges. Our clients include owners, developers, general contractors, construction managers, subcontractors, material manufacturers, suppliers, architects, engineers, and sureties.
From the project’s development and design, to its completion, and even after final payment, PLDR’s dedicated and experienced Construction Law Group can assist you with your legal needs. Among the many services that we can provide are the following:
One of the most fundamental aspects of any construction project are the contracts between the parties, including owner-contractor, owner-design professional, contractor-subcontractor, and contractor-supplier. PLDR’s Construction Law Group will work with you in tailoring and negotiating a contract that meets your individual needs and protects your interests.
Our attorneys have years of experience preparing and reviewing custom designed contracts and working with common standard-form contracts published by AIA, AGC, and other industry groups. On large and complex projects, we can assist you in preparing comprehensive agreements that address all phases of the work. For smaller projects or limited transactions, PLDR’s attorneys can craft a variety of contracts, including short-form agreements, credit agreements, and one-time purchase orders. If you anticipate repeated business from the same party, our attorneys can develop a master agreement that contains the general terms and conditions for all future transactions between you and the party. PLDR also has a significant amount of experience creating design agreements, design-build agreements, construction management agreements, and purchase agreements.
Our attorneys have years of experience preparing and reviewing custom designed contracts and working with common standard-form contracts published by AIA, AGC, and other industry groups. On large and complex projects, we can assist you in preparing comprehensive agreements that address all phases of the work. For smaller projects or limited transactions, PLDR’s attorneys can craft a variety of contracts, including short-form agreements, credit agreements, and one-time purchase orders. If you anticipate repeated business from the same party, our attorneys can develop a master agreement that contains the general terms and conditions for all future transactions between you and the party. PLDR also has a significant amount of experience creating design agreements, design-build agreements, construction management agreements, and purchase agreements.
Construction is a highly regulated industry that can have adverse consequences without the appropriate variances, licenses, or permits. PLDR’s attorneys will navigate you through these regulations and assist you with zoning assessments, zoning variances, and special use permits. We also represent owners, contractors and others with local permitting authorities regarding the issuance of permits, permit inspections, and certificates of occupancy. PLDR’s Construction Law Group will advise you on the contractor licenses and trade licenses required for your construction work and our attorneys represent and defend clients before the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) and its Board for Contractors.
With our Commercial Real Estate Group, PLDR assists owners and developers through the project’s financing process, including negotiations with lending institutions, document drafting, and implementing lenders’ requirements in the construction process.
A construction project’s design and development is a critical phase where ideas are developed with greater detail and major components are coordinated to avoid later design and construction conflicts. To help you with the project’s design and development phase, PLDR’s Construction Law Group can negotiate and draft consulting agreements for design professionals and other service providers. Our attorneys can also help you with obtaining a peer review of the project’s design.
PLDR’s Construction Law Group represents clients in the private construction market at all stages of the bidding process. PLDR will aid you in drafting and reviewing invitations for bid, requests for qualifications, and requests for proposals. If you are responding to these procurement requests, our attorneys will assist you by reviewing and drafting such responses.
PLDR represents contractors, subcontractors, and government entities at all stages of a municipal, state, or federal project. At the procurement stage, PLDR’s Construction Law Group will assist you with procurement compliance, invitations to bid, requests for proposals, and bid protests. After the contract’s award, we will assist you with the contract’s administration. If a contract claim or dispute arises, PLDR will guide you through the governmental dispute resolution process.
A P3 is an agreement between a private party and a government entity where the private party is responsible for financing, constructing, and managing a public asset or service. P3 construction projects are becoming more common and attractive in the United States. PLDR has extensive experience representing clients participating in the Department of Defense’s Military Housing Privatization Initiative and P3 projects with colleges and universities. PLDR’s Construction Law Group can assist you in implementing the construction aspects of a P3 project.
Construction claims come in many different forms, but frequently involve disputes concerning payment or change orders for extra work, delay, inefficiency, acceleration, differing site condition claims, backcharges, liquidated damages, time extensions, defective work, default terminations, or terminations for convenience. PLDR’s attorneys represent clients who are asserting or defending such claims and other claims on construction projects in mediations, arbitrations, Virginia Courts, and Federal Courts.
A significant subset of construction claims deal with allegations of defective installation or defective materials and equipment. These claims can arise during the course of construction but more typically arise as warranty claims when latent defects (defects that are not obvious upon normal inspection) are discovered after the project has been completed for months, or even years. The Construction Law Group represents clients in defective construction cases, beginning with the investigation and continuing through the remedial work, including the negotiation and drafting of consultant and remedial construction contracts. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement on responsibility for the construction and material defects, PLDR will represent you in the dispute resolution process, from mediation to arbitration or litigation.
Another significant subset of construction claims relate to allegations of deficient design, sometimes referred to as error and omission or “E&O” claims. The Construction Law Group represents clients in numerous cases involving E&O claims, including the analysis and investigation of the claims as well as the remedial design and associated construction. If the parties are unable to reach agreement on responsibility, the Construction Law Group is prepared to assist you in seeking a solution through the dispute resolution process, including mediation, arbitration, and litigation.
Getting paid for the work performed or materials supplied is one of the most important issues for a contractor on construction projects. On private projects, a contractor, subcontractor, or supplier may file a mechanic’s lien on the property to secure payment due under their agreement. PLDR’s Construction Law Group has filed and perfected numerous liens on residential, commercial, and multi-lot projects and can assist you with the filing and perfecting of your mechanic’s lien.
For both public and private projects, a payment bond can be used as an alternative means to ensure that a subcontractor or supplier gets paid. PLDR has represented numerous sureties, owners, contractors, and subcontractors in the assertion and defense of payment bond claims and PLDR’s attorneys can assist you in asserting or defending a payment bond claim.
PLDR’s attorneys have been involved in all aspects of the selection and retention of expert consultants for our clients in all phases of the construction process. For typical engagements, we assist clients in identifying, retaining, and overseeing the work of an appropriate expert consultant for the client’s particular construction issue. For large and complex matters, we can engage in nationwide searches and qualification interviews for expert consultants to assess construction claims, including defective construction, delays, and default terminations. In cases that proceed to dispute resolution, PLDR’s attorneys actively work with the client’s expert to prepare an expert report, prepare for and defend expert depositions, and the presentation of the expert’s testimony at hearings and trials.
Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) process that allows the parties to engage in settlement discussions and negotiations that are brokered by a retained third-party mediator. Mediation is a client-controlled process that can allow each party to present and critically analyze its own positions as well as the positions of its opponent. If both parties approach a mediation in good faith, then a mediation in a construction case can be a cost-effective means for resolving disputes. Typically, PLDR’s Construction Law Group engages mediators with experience in construction disputes who will provide evaluative techniques in seeking to mediate a resolution.
Arbitration is an ADR procedure that replaces a lawsuit in state or federal court. An agreement to arbitrate is often included in the parties’ contract, but the parties can also agree to arbitrate after a dispute has arisen. Arbitrations are often, but not always, administered by a commercial dispute resolution provider, such as the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), McCammon Group, or JAMS. Arbitration is intended to be a faster and more efficient means for resolving disputes than a typical lawsuit. PLDR’s Construction Law Group has successfully arbitrated numerous construction disputes in Virginia and in jurisdictions throughout the country.
PLDR’s attorneys have a vast amount of experience prosecuting and defending construction claims for our clients in state and federal courts in the Commonwealth of Virginia and around the country.
From our Lynchburg office, PLDR’s Construction Law Group offers a competitive fee schedule for all matters that it handles throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region. The Construction Law Group can also assist you with your national construction related needs.
