AB758
Contractual risk transfer is just a fancy term for two parties deciding who will take care of a problem if and when it occurs. There are two main ways that developers and contractors transfer risk, one is through contractual risk transfer, also known as indemnity agreements, and the other is through the purchase of insurance policies referred to as additional insured endorsements.

California Construction Defect Litigation Creating Perfect Storm
In some ways, current conditions in California construction defect litigation mirror the “perfect storm” concept, a tempest created by a combination of litigation factors that could not be worse for the building and insurance industries or for new homeowners.

Navigating SB800
SB 800, also known as the "Fix-It Law," codifies the new procedure a homeowner must follow to present a claim to a residential builder for construction defects in new homes sold after January 1, 2003. The law also provides the builder and its subcontractors the right to fix certain problems rather than proceed directly to litigation.

Protecting your LLC's Corporate Veil
It is important to remember that the act of simply forming an LLC is not the end of the process but, rather, the beginning. The LLC must be maintained and operated properly to ensure the individual asset protection offered by the corporate veil.

SIRs
In this day of rising insurance costs and policies that provide limited coverage for the money, many insurance companies are opting to add self-insured retentions (SIRs) to their policies in order to protect against the risk of loss for “the first dollar.” It is imperative, therefore, that contractors have a basic understanding of how an SIR works and how best to maximize its use since it is, after all, the contractor’s money.

Update on SB 800
The key to the success of SB 800 is buy- in by the parties: to the process, to the cost savings, and to the ability to quickly resolve claims before costly litigation.

Update on SIRs
An update on the controversy surrounding SIRs.



Colorado Passes Anti-Indemnity Statute--SB 87
Continuing a trend we have been seeing in many states, Colorado has enacted an anti-indemnity statute--Senate Bill 87--pertaining to construction contracts, which was signed into law by Governor Bill Ritter on April 11, 2007.

Crawford Revisited: The Subcontractor Defense Obligation in California
In Crawford, the majority of the Court decided that a subcontractor whom the jury found to be not negligent was still liable for a share of the developer's defense costs, based on the language of the subcontract.