February 19, 2007

EDITOR'S NOTES

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana has experienced a surge of complaints from home and business owners against unlicensed contractors performing shoddy work. As we learn in one of the issues of this week’s first case, even if the property owner knowingly hires a contractor without proper state licensing, it does not exempt the contractor from following the letter of the law. While the intentions of this contractor were probably honorable, its failure to adhere to the state licensing laws proved its demise.

In Louisiana, all construction projects totaling $50,000 or more require a licensed contractor to oversee the work (even if the contractor qualifies for the reciprocity agreement Louisiana maintains with five other states). If you plan to bid on an out-of-state project, check with that state to ensure you fulfill the requirements for licensing.

In the second case, a California appellate court axes an attachment order against a subcontractor that successfully argued that the exact issue in dispute had not yet been addressed and therefore precluded the order. The final case is an update on a case we covered a year ago—time runs out before a government contractor files papers on a settlement on a project that was terminated for convenience.

We conclude this week’s issue with the second half of an analysis by Warner Consulting experts Mark Anderson and John Livengood on the problems of an as-planned schedule on an ever-changing project.

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