The most recent session of Georgia’s General Assembly produced several notable changes to state and local government procurement laws. These laws apply to both state agencies and local governments. They relate to bidding requirements and conditions, award selection, early completion incentives and liquidated damages for delayed completion, and immigration laws. Read More »New Laws Impact State and Local Public Works Projects
Building Profits — the magazine for the Construction Financial Management Association — recently published an article written by AHC Attorney David Cook . Read the False Claims Act: What CFMs Need to Know. Read More »The False Claims Act: What Construction Financial Managers Need to Know
This guest post was written by James Richardson of the “Georgia Tipsheet.” Read the Executive Order here.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has ordered state agencies to broaden eligibility guidelines of timber in government buildings to include those sourced from forests certified by alternative programs, effectively banning a controversial green building program that recognizes only one certification standard.Read More »Georgia Executive Order Effectively Bars LEED for State Buildings (Guest Post)
Surety bonds offer security to owners, contractors, subcontractors, and others for performance of work and payment therefor. Both payment and performance bonds provide a sense of comfort to parties that rely on bonded parties. But before relying on surety bonds, parties should make sure the terms of the bond match reality.
A recent Georgia case illustrates the importance of checking the terms of surety bonds to ensure they identify and correctly name the parties, especially the bonded principal.Read More »Surety Bond Lesson: Properly Identify the Parties
In several prior blog posts, we discussed the effectiveness of implied-contract claims against public owners, such as counties, school boards, and municipalities. For instance, prior posts have addressed:
This post will cover the success of a quantum-meruit claim against a municipality based on ultra vires contracts — or contracts that were executed without formal authority.Read More »Effect of Municipalities’ Ultra Vires Contracts
In the latest edition of Georgia County Government Magazine, AHC attorney David R. Cook discusses benefits and risks to local governments arising from energy savings… Read More »Energy Savings Performance Contracts: Risks and Rewards for Local Governments
The Georgia General Assembly recently enacted the Georgia Taxpayer Protection False Claims Act (the “Act”) to combat fraud and false claims directed to the state and local governmental funds.Read More »Georgia Enacts a State False Claims Act
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported on an unintended exclusion contained in the 2011 E-Verify Law for contractors of small public owners (called “public employers”). Those interviewed by the AJC, including a state legislator and representatives of the Georgia Municipal Association, believe that the law was not intended to exclude contractors of small public employers. Read More »E-Verify Law’s Unintended Exclusion for Small Public Employers’ Contractors
In a previous AHC Construction Law Update, we discussed a Court of Appeals opinion that held a school district’s construction contract was not void because it did not violate constitutional or statutory prohibitions against multi-year contracts. The Supreme Court of Georgia recently vacated the part of that opinion that has created confusion among public owners’ counsel. Read More »Local Government’s Multi-Year Contract Held Valid in Supreme Court Opinion
At some point, a county’s board or administrators may be faced with complaints from the community about payments made to a private entity. Members of the community (or competitors of the payee) may raise a number of complaints, including:
• payments were made to a friend of a commissioner,
• payments were made without a valid contract,
• the contract was not properly recorded,
• the contract was not effectively approved, or
• the county failed to comply with public works bidding laws.Read More »Recovery of County’s Ultra Vires Payments
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