The AIA contracts, particularly when involving more than two parties, present a host of hazards when it comes to dispute resolution. If our objective as lawyers is to maximize the likelihood and complexity of litigation involving the contracts, then they are a lawyer’s dream. However, when it comes to clarity and presentation of disputes to those outside the construction industry they create work for lawyers and risk, in terms of costs of litigation in addition to risks of adverse findings, to clients. Frank Laws will take one example of an AIA multi-party matrix of contracts and talk about the difficulties they present when deciphering terms to non-contractors.
Presented by:
Francis R. Laws
Thomas & Libowitz, P.A.
Frank Laws has 39 years of experience representing owners and contractors in the construction industry. He leads his firm’s litigation department and has litigated to judges, juries, and arbitrators, disputes involving claims from tens of thousands of dollars to ten figures. The practice has taken him throughout much of the United States and into Canada. Although born along the shores of Lake Ontario in Upstate NY, he has lived and worked in Maryland since 1974 and confesses to having recently developed a fondness for the climate, the city, the lawyers, and the federal court in Huntsville, Alabama.