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Dear YouDig? Archives

10.22.18

The Whistleblower – Do Snitches Get Ditches?

By John Swansinger, Partner in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Dear YouDig?

We are an Ohio road construction contractor and one of our employees just made a ridiculous claim that we are violating the Ohio workplace safety laws. False! We are a successful and honest company that pays well and we maintain standards higher than legally required to protect our workers. Now, this fool is taking us down the rabbit hole. How do we mitigate the odyssey?

-Safe and Sound

9.24.18

Respect the Check

By John Swansinger, Partner in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Dear YouDig,

Good News – our amazing sales team just sold another huge contract!  Bad News –  the Buyer dumped ridiculously one-sided terms and conditions on us.  Our negotiation efforts were met with “do you want the work or not?”  We are happy to stand by our work but these terms go too far.  How do we make a deal?

-Rock and Hard Place

9.7.18

Truth is truth

By John Swansinger, Partner in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Dear YouDig?

We are the prime electrical contractor on a very large industrial project.  Simply put, the owner’s construction manager has been a nightmare. All aspects of the project are extremely contentious, at times, closing in on fisticuffs.  He has repeatedly harassed our team while they are working like some sort of slave master or 1950’s football coach. Angry flare ups and vicious name calling dominate every job meeting.  He accuses our veteran project manager of incompetency and refers to him only as the “Stooge” during every job meeting.  He even kicked over the coffee table in our trailer during one of his rages! To say the least, the project manager wants to take matters into his own hands.  We are all sick of this jerk but we still have 50% of our scope to wrap up.  We expect a war to break out over the last pay application.  What can we do to shore up our chances of getting paid?

-Fed Up

8.24.18

Cardinal Change Doctrine: The Great Escape

By John Swansinger, Partner in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Dear YouDig?,

We have a big problem. We won a contract to build a new army base. The Army’s construction manager has issued countless unilateral changes that are upsetting our work. The base we thought we were building is now turning into the Taj Mahal.  The constant changes to get there are killing our productivity. In some cases we don’t have the capacity to perform or the time within the contract to complete it. If we keep trying to pacify the Feds, we would go under. We are headed for a showdown. We want to tear up this contract and start over.

-Sweating It

8.8.18

Beware the Feller Buncher

By John Swansinger, Partner in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

Dear YouDig?,

As an excavating contractor, we clear sites for construction. Naturally, we are usually the first subcontractor on the job, working hard to clear, cut and level to get the site right.  Unfortunately, the general contractor often forgets about us once we finish and leaves us to wait for payment. Guess what, we just finished clearing (practically a Redwood Forest) for a fancy new nursing home and submitted our final pay application in due course. You guessed it… NO DOUGH. The GC has gone radio silent. We know we can file a lien and we have a contract, but those claims take time and my superintendent wants to run a feller buncher into the GC’s swanky lobby NOW. What can we do?
– Stiffed Again