ANAHEIM CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTION EXPERT WITNESS
DIRECTORY AND CAPABILITIES

How to Deal with Contractor Delays – Bad Contractor Series Part 2

July 01, 2025 — Jon Grishpul - GreatBuildz
How To Deal With Contractor Delays Before we dig into this, don’t forget to check out part 1 of our Bad Contractors series: How To Spot a Bad Contractor Those of us who have used the services of a general contractor to renovate a home know that it can be a stressful experience. One reason for this stress is that remodel projects can get severely delayed and feel like they are taking forever. Project delays or a contractor not performing as promised are two major reasons that over 50% of homeowners report having a negative experience with their remodel or complaining of a bad contractor. Hire The Right Contractor If you haven’t hired a contractor or started your project yet, there are a few important things you should know and steps to take in order to get the best results. The most important thing you can do is hire the right contractor who respects your time and the schedule he/she committed to you. If you’re hiring a contractor for whom you’ve called three references and they all said he finished on schedule, you can be confident he will do the same for you. Another thing you can do is express your expectations clearly upfront. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Jon Grishpul, GreatBuildz

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Texas Case Exposes Cracks in the Government Contractor Immunity Shield

November 09, 2025 — Elaine Silver - Engineering News-Record
It started with a horrific crash. Pedro Alfonso Castaneda, the mainstay of a Texas family of five, had finished shopping at a plumbing supply store on an August afternoon in 2019, when he pulled up in his Toyota Tacoma pickup at an intersection adjacent to a busy highway overpass construction project in Pinehurst, Texas. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Elaine Silver, Engineering News-Record
ENR may be contacted at enr@enr.com

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Eyes on the Sky: Regulating DJI Drones on Federal and Private Construction Sites

October 13, 2025 — Maggie Murphy - Construction Executive
When Paul Hedgepath walks a construction site, he doesn’t just see steel beams, scaffolding and concrete. He sees the invisible data streams that help keep multimillion-dollar projects on schedule and under budget - much of it captured by drones buzzing silently overhead. “Drones are on every jobsite we have,” says Hedgepath, director of innovation at MJ Harris Construction. “We use them for progress tracking, reporting to owners, safety and photogrammetry. They’ve become a daily part of how we build.” That reliance, however, could soon face its biggest test yet. Nearly 90% of drones used in the U.S. construction industry are made by DJI, a Chinese company that dominates the global market. Policymakers in Washington, citing security concerns and data privacy issues, are weighing bans and restrictions on Chinese-made drones across federal projects - with ripple effects likely for private-sector contractors too. Reprinted courtesy of Maggie Murphy, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved. Read the full story...

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When Logic Doesn’t Matter: Why ‘Irrational’ Isn’t a Ground to Overturn an Arbitration Award in Tennessee

November 09, 2025 — Matthew DeVries - Best Practices Construction Law
Arbitration has long been viewed as a faster, more efficient alternative to litigation. But anyone involved in construction disputes today knows that is not always the case. The process can be just as costly, sometimes taking as long as a court case. Yet one thing remains consistent, and it is the most important point for everyone in the construction process to understand before signing an arbitration clause: once an arbitrator decides, that decision is almost always final. That reality was reinforced in a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals decision, MidSouth Construction, LLC v. Burstiner (June 12, 2025) (pdf). The case involved a homeowner who tried to overturn an arbitration award following a dispute about defective deck construction. The homeowner argued that the arbitrator’s decision was “fundamentally irrational.” The court rejected that argument. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Matthew DeVries, Buchalter
Mr. DeVries may be contacted at mdevries@buchalter.com

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Should Post Contract Award Tariffs be Reimbursable? Why Public Works Contractors Deserve Clarity

November 18, 2025 — Brett M. Hill - Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
Public works contractors across Washington and the U.S. are grappling with a costly and unresolved question: when the federal government imposes new import tariffs after a contract has been awarded, do those tariffs entitle contractors to additional compensation? The answer depends on the contract and the public agency. Some public works contracts tie relief directly to whether tariffs are considered “taxes.” Others frame their adjustment clauses more broadly, focusing on changes in law or government-imposed costs. For contractors, the distinction is critical. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Brett M. Hill, Ahlers Cressman & Sleight PLLC
Mr. Hill may be contacted at brett.hill@acslawyers.com

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NYC Billionaires’ Row Tower Could Need $160M Fix Amid Cracking

December 02, 2025 — Emell D. Adolphus - Engineering News-Record
A cracking and crumbling New York City tower could leave the building “uninhabitable,” according to engineers who estimate that a $160 million renovation might be needed to fix 432 Park Avenue's striking white concrete facade. Read the full story...
Reprinted courtesy of Emell D. Adolphus, Engineering News-Record
Mr. Adolphus may be contacted at adolphuse@enr.com

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Mercury Insurance Builds Climate Science Team to Tackle the Impact of Extreme Weather Events

June 16, 2025 — Mercury Insurance
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (June 10, 2025) -- Mercury Insurance (NYSE: MCY), a leading provider of property and casualty insurance, has appointed Steve Bennett as its Senior Director of Climate and Catastrophe Science. In this new position, Bennett will build and lead a team dedicated to helping identify ways Mercury and its policyholders can work together to better prepare for — and be more resilient -- in the face of increasingly severe climate-driven weather events. This move is the latest in a series of investments by Mercury to better understand and counteract forces facing insurance providers in high-risk areas. Climate change, population growth and resulting urban expansion has placed the insurance industry at a crossroads, resulting in many insurers pulling back from areas prone to wildfires, hurricanes and other catastrophic climate events. Mercury has taken a different approach to this challenge over the past year, working with homeowners, municipalities and government to create more resistant and insurable risks. The result has led to Mercury writing more policies in areas where its competitors have cancelled or non-renewed coverage for tens of thousands of consumers. Mercury's efforts on this front have been challenged over the past year in dramatic ways. Late last year, Mercury announced that it was the first major insurer to begin writing homeowners coverage for homes in Paradise, CA, a town largely destroyed by the Camp Fire in November 2018. The move was made possible through the efforts of local and state government, the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) -- and the homeowners -- who worked in lockstep to reimagine zoning, construction and many other aspects of the rebuilding process. Mercury leadership closely followed the progress in Paradise, taking numerous trips to the area to see the transformation first-hand and to use the new parameters instituted for wildfire mitigation in their assessment of risk in that area. Following Mercury's return to Paradise, the catastrophic fires that ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena earlier this year once again underscored the enormity of the challenge. "Mercury continues to develop a different approach to managing catastrophic risks," said Victor Joseph, President and Chief Operating Officer of Mercury Insurance. "We look at geography, prevailing wind patterns, building methods and materials, and policy concentration and apply this knowledge to individual risks. It's not good enough to simply rule out entire zip codes. There are ways to significantly reduce risk even in the highest danger areas that would make these risks acceptable for Mercury. Bennett joins Mercury with over three decades of leadership at the nexus of extreme weather, climate risk and effective risk management. He also serves on the adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches and leads research for the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation. Previously, he was co-founder and chief scientist at Demex, where he led pioneering work on severe convective storms -- including tornadoes, hail and derechos -- helping to translate cutting-edge science into novel reinsurance solutions.

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Navigating Disruption to Construction Projects Flowing From the America First Trade Policy

September 08, 2025 — Meagan T. Bachman, Joshua M. Lindsay & Edward Norman - Construction Executive
In January 2025, the Trump administration announced its intention to pursue an America First Trade Policy. Several months later it remains difficult to predict what measures will be employed to implement this policy from one week to the next, not least because some measures have been announced and then withdrawn, postponed or modified immediately after. Whether and to what extent construction projects experience increased materials costs, supply-chain disruptions and materials shortages, delays or perhaps even cancellations remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that at least some of the materially increased U.S. tariffs and export controls and those levied in response to U.S. tariffs are already substantially affecting construction projects globally and the entire ladder of supply. These disruptions could very well be a source of continuing challenges and uncertainty for projects the world over. Below is a simple checklist that endeavors to provide a practical reference tool to help companies at all levels of the contractual chain for construction projects review the contractual and other legal mechanisms that may be available to them to navigate the current conditions. This checklist is intended to serve as a starting point for evaluating options to mitigate the impacts of changes in tariffs and export controls, but the application and utility of the contractual mechanisms and laws identified here naturally will vary according to the particular contract language and the governing law. Reprinted courtesy of Meagan T. Bachman, Joshua M. Lindsay & Edward Norman, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved. Ms. Bachman may be contacted at MBachman@crowell.com Mr. Lindsay may be contacted at JoshLindsay@crowell.com Read the full story...

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