Virginia Real Estate, Land Use and Construction Law Blog

Recent Posts from Virginia Real Estate, Land Use and Construction Law Blog

• Katrina Verdict: The Corps of Engineers Takes a Beating

  After a 19 day bench trial, on Wednesday evening a federal judge ruled in favor of six plaintiffs seeking compensation against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act for damages flowing from Hurricane…

• Recovering Delay Damages under the Virginia Public Procurement Act, Part II

  Earlier this year, the Virginia Supreme Court decided Martin Brothers Contractors, Inc. v. Virginia Military Institute, taking the opportunity to revisit its decision in Blake Construction. The Virginia Military Institute (“VMI”) contracted with Martin Brothers…

• Metro Safety May Go Federal

  The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Obama administration will propose taking over safety regulation of subways and light rail, including the regional Metro system.  Metro has been taking a regular beating in the press recently for safety…

• LEED and Energy Models Continued: The Illinois Regional Study

  There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Mark Twain, paraphrasing Benjamin Disraeli We have a new and very interesting recent report on green building to examine, the Regional Green Building Case…

• Contractually Mandated Mediation: Good or Bad?

  Mediation is often touted as a time and cost-saving method of dispute resolution in construction matters.  It is not without its critics.  Don Short recently posted a discussion,  "Why Bother with Mediation?".  Mr. Short's basic postion: "...…

• Stimulus, Construction Jobs, Political Optics and the Regional Scorecard

  Today we tip our toe, quite gingerly we might add, into the ugly place where preliminary statistics and politics meet. In the last week, print news and the internet have been awash with reports on…

• The "Other" Kind of Contracting - Best Practices for Government Success

  As announced previously, we were very happy to participate in a recent seminar on government contracting in connection with the Associated Builders and Contractors - Metro Washington Chapter.  The seminar, which took place last week,…

• Recovering Delay Damages under the Virginia Public Procurement Act, Part I

  In the recent case of Martin Brothers Construction, Inc. v. Virginia Military Institute [pdf], the Virginia Supreme Court was confronted with whether Martin Brothers was able to claim delay costs, re-examining its 2003 opinion, Blake…

• Green, Sustainability and the Need for Third Party Validation

  A post this weekend by our friend Andrea Goldman raises the interesting question of “why bother with LEED certification”? The post highlights a recent profile on the highly sustainable Hutton Hotel project in Nashville which…

• My Wood is Greener than Your Wood: Certification Battles Continue

  The New York times reported this week that the "Coalition for Fair Forest Certification" has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that the Forest Stewardship Council has engaged in unfair and deceptive…