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The arbitration process is one that is commonly encouraged as a means to resolve disputes. It is touted as being less expensive and quicker than litigating in court and presided over by arbitrators who are experts in the area of law governing the dispute. Texas law favors arbitration.  However, a party seeking to compel another to arbitration must establish the existence of an agreement to arbitrate and show that the claims asserted fall within the scope of that agreement. As the Mainthia Technologies, Inc. v. Recruiting Force, LLC case out of the Third Court of Appeals shows, it is not enoug

The numbers are jaw-dropping. Steel mill prices have increased nearly 25% over the past 3 months.  Softwood lumber prices have increased nearly 100% over the past 12 months.  Manufacturers and suppliers have started increasing inventories of raw materials to moderate future price shocks, further constraining supply and increasing prices. Whether the increases in construction materials are due to disruptions in the supply chain arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the blockage of the Suez Canal, or old-fashioned price gauging, performing a fixed price contract when material prices surge can le

If you have not heard the term “smart contract” before, go ahead and add it to your list of technology buzzwords. In a similar vein to the technologies discussed in our recent blog on cryptocurrency, this is an emerging technology that is a sort of self-executing contract poised to increase overall project efficiency by cutting out the “middle man” (i.e., humans) upon completion of certain conditions. Before getting into more detail, perhaps the most important question is why should you care about smart contracts? Construction is an ever-changing, competitive industry whose players are

This blog marks our 100th since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020.  What began as our quarantine project—reviewing and posting countless city and county face covering and stay-at-home orders to help our clients navigate the complex web of requirements—has somehow morphed into a series of articles about the legal, practical and ethical ramifications of operating a business or just surviving through a modern-day pandemic. Looking back over the last 100 blogs, it is clear life has changed dramatically since our first blog. When the COVID pandemic was in its viral infancy, dete

If you have ever driven through the Texas Panhandle, no doubt you have come across a wind-turbine or two. For instance, the Roscoe wind farm, located about 45 miles south-west of Abilene, is the largest onshore wind farm in the world – employing 627 turbines over 100,000 acres of land, stretching through Mitchell, Nolan, and Scurry counties. Although the Roscoe wind farm is just over 11 years old, having been put into operation in 2009, other wind-turbines, like ones located at the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm in California that started development in the 1980s, are nearing the end of their l