{"id":902222,"date":"2024-02-06T16:12:15","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=902222"},"modified":"2024-02-06T16:12:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T23:12:18","slug":"construction-contract-basics-venue-choice-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contract-basics-venue-choice-of-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Contract Basics: Venue and Choice of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Christopher G. Hill | <a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/construction-contract-basics-venue-and-choice-of-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Construction Law Musings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously in this on-again-off-again series of posts on construction contract basics, I discussed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/attorney-fees-provisions-must-contracts\/\">attorney fees provisions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/indemnification-clauses-understanding\/\">indemnification<\/a>.\u00a0 In this installment, the topic at hand is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/venue-provision-payment-bond\/\">venue<\/a> and choice of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As construction professionals (outside of us\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/christopherhill-law.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">construction attorneys<\/a>), you are likely to be focused on things like the scope of work in a construction contract, the price terms, payment, delays, change orders, and the like.\u00a0 However, the venue (where any lawsuit or arbitration will have to happen) and the choice of law (what state\u2019s law applies) can be equally important.\u00a0 You need to know where you will have to enforce your rights under the contract and also what law will apply.\u00a0 Will you need to go to another state to enforce your rights?\u00a0 Even if not, will your local attorney have to learn the law of another jurisdiction?\u00a0 These are important questions when reading and negotiating your prime contract (if with the owner) or subcontract (if with the general contractor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some general thoughts regarding these provisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Clauses setting a particular venue for a lawsuit (for instance the Circuit Court of Henrico County, Virginia) are enforceable.\u00a0 This is Virginia and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/affirmed-the-contract-is-king-in-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">this is a contract<\/a>. However, there is a minor caveat that, in most instances, a Virginia contractor working on a Virginia-located project cannot be forced to go out of state to pursue its rights.\u00a0 Any\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/law.lis.virginia.gov\/vacode\/title8.01\/chapter5\/section8.01-262.1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">venue provision to that effect is unenforceable<\/a>. But. . .<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choice of law provisions are also enforceable.&nbsp; The parties to a contract can set a particular state\u2019s (or country\u2019s) law to be used when interpreting the rights of the parties.&nbsp; Often that choice of law is where the \u201cupstream\u201d party, and likely their attorney, are located.&nbsp; This puts a bit of an interesting spin on (1) above.&nbsp; The question then becomes what happens where the law of, say, Illinois applies and the venue for legal action is set as Illinois.&nbsp; Does the Virginia law stated above still apply if a suit is filed in Illinois?&nbsp; I hope that you won\u2019t have to find out because. . .<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You should always try and keep the choice of law and venue to the location of the project.&nbsp; For you Virginia contractors this is most likely to be Virginia.&nbsp; This solves the conundrum above because it aligns the choice of law and venue in Virginia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finally, your local Virginia construction attorney will much appreciate not having to travel out of state or learn law from another state with which he is unfamiliar (with the corresponding fees to you as the client).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see from the above (albeit limited) discussion of venue and choice of law, without a good grasp and awareness of the effects of these provisions, you could end up on a plane to another state to enforce your rights on a local construction project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\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\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher G. Hill | Construction Law Musings Previously in this on-again-off-again series of posts on construction contract basics, I discussed\u00a0attorney fees provisions\u00a0and\u00a0indemnification.\u00a0 In this installment, the topic at hand is venue and choice of law. As construction professionals (outside of us\u00a0construction attorneys), you are likely to be focused on things like the scope of work&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contract-basics-venue-choice-of-law\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Construction Contract Basics: Venue and Choice of Law<\/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":[9,172],"tags":[9895,224,11863],"class_list":["post-902222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-contract","tag-construction-laws","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>Construction Contract Basics: Venue and Choice of Law - Advise &amp; 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