Construction Law & Ethics

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3. On State and Federal projects, do disputes always go to courts?

"When a particular claim may be heard in either state or federal court, there is concurrent  jurisdiction. Generally, the court (whether federal or state) will apply the law of the state where  the construction project is located unless the contracting parties have agreed that the law of a  different state will be applied" (Sweet and Schneier, 2015). The following claims will be heard in court: admiralty, bankruptcy, patent and copyright, actions involving the U.S., and violations of federal crime statutes. Otherwise, disputes could move to trial if it was not disputed prior. Disputes do not always go to court. They are most often resolved before ever speaking to a judge. 

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4. How can contractors know how to follow all of the complicated environmental and labor laws?

Contractors can facilitate the long and exhausting effort of complying with the environmental and labor laws by following the contracts for design and construction services published by professional associations. 

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1. Is it good to go to court if you have a dispute?

In my opinion, it is not good to go to court to solve a dispute. Most times, disputes that end up in court always end up consuming valuable time while adding additional financial expenses. In addition, most disputes are always settled my simply having a "sit-down" and working out issues that have a solution.

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3. On State and Federal projects, do disputes always go to courts?

Depending on the construction dispute and damages involved in the construction case, it has been my experience that State or Federal cases can be resolved through mitigation. It has been where the dollar amount in dispute regarding damages is less than $75,000, legal council has recommended to settle through mediation or arbitration. Disputes in federal court can drag on for a long time costing the end user the most harm and ill spent tax dollars. Therefore, not all State or Federal projects go to trial.

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3. On State and Federal projects, do dispute always go to courts?

Just as with other court systems not all state and federal projects/contract disputes go to court. Most are settled out of court in the interest of time and money. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims hears cases involving public work contractor disputes. If a contractor feels the government did not abide the terms of the contract, it was penalized unfairly for issues that went wrong during the completion of the project, it can take them to a special court. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims handles public works contracts. States may have a similar special court system or simply use the regular state court system in place.