Topic: Professional liability

As the market for the creation of capital assets moves increasingly toward design-build, many architecture firms have found themselves in the difficult position of being a subcontractor to a design-builder who often is a construction contractor. Serving their client—the design-build entity—and not the ultimate project client can create communication and ethical problems for the architecture…

For every project that an architectural firm undertakes, the greatest probability of an unfavorable outcome is that the firm will not be properly compensated for the services performed and the value it added to the project for the client. On international projects, there is also the risk that the firm will not be able to…

When a claim is brought against an architectural firm alleging that an injury or death was caused by the firm’s negligence, the firm suffers its own kind of trauma. Bodily injury cases invariably cause internal strife and force the firm to question its services. Often, a firm feels singled out for punishment, abused by the…

Clients of architecture firms are increasingly mandating “prevailing party” contractual provisions that allow the successful party in a dispute between the client and the firm to recover legal costs as well as any damages. Often, architecture firms find such provisions acceptable because they assume that if they have to sue a client for a fee,…

When a surety has to take over a project from a defaulting contractor, the surety completes the work under the bonded contract and is entitled to the remainder of the contract cost. Often, the cost of completion exceeds the available payments and the surety looks to sources of cost recovery. In virtually every state, courts…