{"id":900295,"date":"2022-08-25T15:05:18","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T21:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=900295"},"modified":"2022-08-25T15:05:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T21:05:37","slug":"duty-to-defend-contracts-architects-engineers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-contracts-architects-engineers\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware The Duty To Defend Language In Contracts With Architects And Engineers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Andrew O. Gay | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mondaq.com\/unitedstates\/construction-planning\/1221582\/beware-the-duty-to-defend-language-in-contracts-with-architects-and-engineers?email_access=on\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Gentry Locke<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is the job of the Virginia legislature to make and change the laws of our Commonwealth. Sometimes, these new or changed laws are plastered all over the news. More often than not, new and changed laws are put into effect with little to no publicity. Nevertheless, there they are, ready to be used as a tool, or weapon, when the time presents itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the world&#8217;s reaction to COVID-19, the Virginia legislature was hard at work in 2020. Part of its work included amending an existing law concerning indemnification provisions in contracts with design professionals. Historically, indemnification provisions included a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-sub-contractor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">duty to defend<\/a>. In 2020, the Virginia legislature changed this rule, following a popular trend among other state legislatures, by adding the following paragraph to Va. Code \u00a7 11-4.4:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Any provision<\/strong>&nbsp;contained&nbsp;<strong>in any contract<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>relating to the planning or design<\/strong>&nbsp;of a building, structure, or appurtenance thereto, including moving, demolition, or excavation connected therewith,&nbsp;<strong>or any provision<\/strong>&nbsp;contained&nbsp;<strong>in any contract<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>relating to the planning or design of construction projects<\/strong>&nbsp;by which any party purports to&nbsp;<strong>impose a duty to defend<\/strong>&nbsp;on any other party to the contract,&nbsp;<strong>is against public policy and is void and unenforceable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This amendment is important, but it has gone largely unnoticed by owners, contractors, and design professionals. As a result, for all qualifying contracts after 2020, the inclusion of a \u201cduty to defend\u201d obligation will render&nbsp;<strong>the entire provision<\/strong>&nbsp;void and unenforceable. Keep in mind that this new paragraph in Va. Code \u00a7 11-4.4 concerns&nbsp;<em>any<\/em>&nbsp;provision, not just indemnification provisions. Thus, owners, contractors, and design professionals must all be on the lookout for \u201cduty to defend\u201d provisions going forward, or else risk having numerous provisions of their contracts stricken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Benjamin Franklin once said, \u201can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.\u201d When dealing with design professional contracts, that ounce of prevention is taking the time to properly prepare, review, and negotiate your contracts before signing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew O. Gay | Gentry Locke It is the job of the Virginia legislature to make and change the laws of our Commonwealth. Sometimes, these new or changed laws are plastered all over the news. More often than not, new and changed laws are put into effect with little to no publicity. Nevertheless, there they&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/duty-to-defend-contracts-architects-engineers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Beware The Duty To Defend Language In Contracts With Architects And Engineers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9009,10],"tags":[9895,333,57,334],"class_list":["post-900295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design-professionals","category-duty-to-defend","tag-advise-consult","tag-architects","tag-duty-to-defend-2","tag-engineers","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Beware The Duty To Defend Language In Contracts With Architects And Engineers - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Historically, indemnification provisions included duty to defend. 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