In Colorado there is a major difference between remedies available to contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and others in the construction industry depending upon whether the project is privately or publicly owned. Subcontractors and suppliers (and rental companies) on Colorado public projects have three ways to get paid:• Sue and get a judgment against the contractors they worked for or supplied to• Sue on the general contractor’s bond posted at the project if the general contract is over $50,000, or• Apply through the verified claim/withholding process.Here are each of these remedies considered separately.From the contractor. If a contractor on a Colorado public

The design profession and construction industry recently lost a valued and distinguished member when engineer Richard Weingardt died on Sept. 24 at the age of 75. Courtesy of ACEC Colorado Richard Weingardt Weingardt started his own structural engineering firm, Richard Weingardt Consultants Inc. (RWC) at the age of 27. To date, he and his firm have completed engineering for more than 5,000 projects. They include major engineering work on Denver International Airport, the Jefferson County Courthouse and projects throughout the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Korea. RWC continues its practice as one of Colorado's leading structural engineering firms.Weingardt served

Caution! Webster defines conundrum as “a confusing and difficult problem or question.”That is what construction contractors, design professionals, subcontractors and suppliers may face if or when they do work, supply materials or provide designs for businesses engaged in the cultivation, distribution and/or sale of marijuana in Colorado.Although Colorado now has laws legalizing marijuana under defined conditions, marijuana is a “controlled substance” under federal law and therefore its manufacture, distribution and possession is illegal.So what does that have to do with the Colorado construction industry?  There’s no easy answer.Recently, a federal bankruptcy court judge in Denver ruled that a landlord who

Careful construction industry people (and others) may want to make the following New Year's resolutions for 2013 (perhaps to help avoid attorneys’ fees): • Resolve to make all reasonable efforts to settle disputes directly with the other party—and leave your attorney out of it;• Resolve to carefully document every event that might give rise to a claim or dispute through letters, archived e-mails, meeting notes and communications, dated photographs and, if applicable, videos, Tweets and other social media.• Resolve to watch out for deadlines such as completion dates, times for asserting mechanic’s liens or verified claims or statutes of limitations,

Editor’s Note: Past “Construction Law Briefs” have published four separate columns dealing with Colorado law on the question of whether defective construction is covered under comprehensive general liability (CGL) insurance policies carried by most contractors and subcontractors. The column has addressed previous Colorado court decisions and the Colorado statute passed in 2010 that was designed to overrule an earlier Colorado Court of Appeals decision.  In the latest of those columns, coverage for defective construction was generally left unanswered. However, on October 25, the Colorado Court of Appeals rendered a decision that may answer the question—but not entirely.In the October 2012

Members of the construction industry who have been involved in litigation, either in court or arbitration, have learned the valuable lesson that attorney’s fees are a major component of their cases.

here are a few cases winding their way through local courts aimed at testing the merits of mechanic’s liens and bond claims of suppliers who have allegedly continued to sell materials to subcontractors despite the fact that the subcontractors had been delinquent in paying their suppliers’ bills. Those suppliers have filed either mechanic’s liens against the privately owned properties upon which the materials had been used or bond claims against the general contractors’ bonds posted on public projects.  In both instances, if the suppliers are successful, the general contractors would be paying double if they had already paid their subcontractors.A

Don't be surprised if the first response you get from your insurance company is a denial when you file a claim or ask it to defend a claim against you or your company.  Many insurance companies use the “flinch test.” They first deny claims, hoping that the insureds will drop the matter.  Don’t let your company get away with that practice.  Make certain that you really do not have coverage before dropping the matter. Most Colorado contractors and subcontractors carry comprehensive general liability (CGL) insurance.  Since their policies are on forms prepared by insurance company-sponsored organizations, CGL insurance policies are

The tragic fire losses experienced by Colorado building owners and homeowners raise a number of questions that need to be answered by many members of the design and construction industry. From the standpoint of involved members of the industry, one of the main questions is: Will owners have sufficient funds to pay for reconstruction or remediation of their properties?One of the first places to look is the owner’s insurance coverage. If that coverage is not adequate or not properly pursued by—or on behalf of—the owner, and if the owner does not otherwise have funds to complete the work, those who

In 1977 a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that the constitutional right of free speech gave lawyers the right to advertise. Before that, ethics rules governing lawyers’ conduct prohibited lawyer advertising in Colorado and in most other states. Now, under that U.S. Supreme Court decision and Colorado Supreme Court ethics rules Colorado lawyers may advertise under certain conditions. Those conditions generally include that:• the advertising materials must not be false or misleading;• advertising must not make untrue comparisons of the lawyer’s services with those of other lawyers;• ads must not create unjustified expectations about results;• lawyers may not make solicitations