Neil S. Lowenstein

With the ever-increasing media world, public relations assistance to help manage public perceptions respecting companies, projects, or specific project events, like a casualty, are increasingly helpful and common. However, for your PR company to help effectively spin those perceptions, they need information....

Manufactured products typically come with installation instructions. If the installer follows them, one would presume the warranty would stand. But one Virginia Supreme Court case, Bridgestone/Firestone v. Prince William Square, 250 Va. 402, 463 S.E.2d 661 (1995), calls that presumption into question. In...

Increasingly over the years, public bodies have sought to use express markup provisions as the limited extent of their liability for delay damages; however, the Virginia Supreme Court has rejected that approach as contrary to Virginia’s statutory prohibition of delay damage waivers for public...

For those unaware, there’s a new OSHA standard for cranes & derricks in construction. That standard, CFR 29 Part 1926 Subpart CC was published July 9, 2010 and became effective last month on November 8, 2010. It’s a 200 page standard so I’m not going to try and summarize it all;...

What happens if a party who’s bonded doesn’t or can’t complete their work? There’s no single answer to this, but if you’re the party that issued the contract (the “obligee”) you should pat yourself on the back for getting the performance bond in the first...

Now that everyone’s had their fill of Thanksgiving food and good cheer, it’s time to get back to the old grindstone. One way to burn off those holiday calories is to exercise the old mind; hey, in my book, every calorie burned counts, not matter how you burn it! The Virginia Supreme Court...

Many subcontractors presume that if there is a payment bond on a project they have insurance of payment from the surety, but that’s not true. A payment bond is not insurance. It only comes into play if the claim is covered by the payment bond and the claimant makes proper claim under the payment...

The holiday season is always one of the best of the year. Getting ready for turkey day reminded me (showing a bit of my age here) of an old episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, in which the radio station tried a turkey giveaway promotion, but the station owner didn’t realize turkeys (at least big...

Following up an earlier post, the Virginia Supreme Court In Jamerson v. Coleman-Adams Construction, Inc., 280 Va. 490, 699 S.E.2d (2010) recently discussed the distinction between ordinary building materials, which are subject to Virgina’s 5-year statute of repose, and equipment or machinery,...

Most states, including Virginia, have licensing requirements for contractors. Virginia’s requirements apply regardless of trade and regardless of whether the contractor is a prime contractor or one of the prime’s lower tier subcontractors. Unlike some other states, Virginia has a 3-level...