Michigan courts have been wrestling with the boundaries of the Occupational Code and statutory requirements relating to residential builder’s licenses, mixed-use housing projects, and commercial construction. Perhaps the most notable question has been whether a...
Insurance coverage is an integral part of the construction process. The contract documents rely on insurance to facilitate the risk allocation and risk transfer needs of the project. These contractual specifications lay out the types of coverage, policy limits, and...
On June 29, 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in a case with wide ranging implications for all contractors in Michigan who purchase CGL insurance. In a break from over thirty years of established law, the Court held that there “may” be...
A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, commonly referred to as an “ESA” or “Phase I,” researches current and historical uses of real estate as part of a commercial real estate transaction. A Phase I assesses whether previous real estate uses have impacted the soil...
An important case for contractors and subcontractors has surfaced at the Michigan Supreme Court. Skanska USA Building, Inc. v. M.A.P. Mechanical Contractors, Inc. raises the question: is property damage coverage under a standard commercial general liability policy...
By Stephen A. Hilger, Esq. An Analysis of the Ric-Man Construction v Neyer, Tiseo & Hindo decision. For many years under Michigan jurisprudence, design professionals have avoided the high cost of litigation because they were legally insulated from claims from...
This is Part 1 in a 20-part series of articles dealing with issues of arbitration in the construction industry.
The question of whether to arbitrate or litigate disputes comes up fairly frequently in the construction industry. From my humble perspective, with respect to construction disputes, there are very few circumstances where I would choose litigation over arbitration. Why?
Choice of Decision Maker
With arbitration, in general, you pick the decision maker(s) as opposed to being assigned a judge through a blind draw in the court system. That level of arbitrator selection may range from picking from a list under the American Arbitration Association Rules to hand picking a blue-ribbon panel of arbitrators or even a single arbitrator through private arbitration. If you are assigned a judge through the courts, you may end up with a judge who does criminal proceedings in the morning, divorce proceedings before lunch, and then handles your complex construction law dispute in the afternoon, in 15-minute increments, along with multiple other disputes in what looks to an outsider like a giant cattle call. Unless your contract provides otherwise, you may also be in the unlucky position to try your complex construction disputes to a jury.