Construction Contracting: Business and Legal Principles, Second Edition - Second Edition

Reviewed by Gunnar Lucko, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of Construction Engineering and Management Program, The Catholic University of America on 3/5/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This book is somewhat of a classic in learning about construction contract. It is succinct yet quite comprehensive and introduces most of the relevant concepts in construction law that a project manager will encounter on a routine basis. The reason for my less than perfect rating is that I wish that the author had spent more than just the last two chapters on contract claims (briefly described) and dispute avoidance (omitted, the last chapter is about dispute resolution), which is becoming ever more important. To put it in other words, the best claim or even dispute is one that is completely avoided or defused as soon as possible. Some thoughtful comments on this being better would have been appreciated.
While being comprehensive, I think the delay analysis chapter is too light on the different delay analysis methods. Quite a few exist, among them a few well-established ones that are recognized by courts and used by government agencies. Naming and briefly describing them would have been useful, as they may be encountered in practice.
Then again, I really liked the delayed schedule example throughout the chapter with analysis steps explained right on it - it is extremely well described and commendable.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

In the chapter on delay responsibility (or rather liability), a flowchart of delay classification into excusable (or not) and (if so) compensable (or not) is missing sorely. This is a standard distinction that does not become clear right there.
Contract types and delivery methods could have been more strongly delineated - they seem to be lumped into a chapter on the prime contract (between owner and general contractor).
I disagree with bidding documents constituting part of the contract documents themselves. This cannot be, as the bid only leads to then establishing the contract formally.
Liquidated damages should be clearly contrasted with their opposite of early completion bonuses, and a few ways of specifying them (e.g. stepped scale) would have been nice. The fact that these are not a penalty should have been mentioned more emphatically.
The 'no pay until paid' section should have included the common phrases of pay-if-paid and pay-when-paid contract clauses, which in some states are being outlawed.
Subcontractor prequalification could have been briefly mentioned.
I dislike calling insurance policies 'insurance contracts' (which technically they are) and making it appear as it they stand alongside the prime contract. That is misleading.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Despite focusing on the legal aspects, the author does not overlook implementation of the same by construction project managers, who are - for the very most part - non-lawyers. I particularly appreciate the section on 'put it into writing' under contract administration, which is full of practical advice on routinely generating records as proof for the case that they may be needed. This could perhaps have been expanded with a brief discussion of written versus oral communication and maybe also negotiation strategies (more on this under dispute avoidance in this review), but this is only a minor issue.
I am slightly puzzled by the partial title phrase 'business principles' - insofar as concepts that the book covers are incurred by construction firms, yes, but it sounds a bit misleading like business management, which is not at all contained in this book.
The chapter on red flags is a particularly useful and practical listing of many small but important clauses (akin to 'the fine print' of construction contracts).

Clarity rating: 5

Given the tendency of legal language to drift into verbosity, I consider the text absolutely exemplary in writing clearly. Sentences tend to be short and to the point, which is a positive. The writing style is crisp and straightforward reminds me of some of the examples that Strunk and White's seminal guidebook on quality technical writing has given.

Consistency rating: 5

While being consistent thanks to its clear and straightforward language throughout the text, in some cases using the actual technical term may even be slightly more accurate, e.g. legal responsibility should be termed liability (after defining it as such).

Modularity rating: 5

Yes, the textbook has a substantial number of essentially self-contained chapters on a host of topics under the umbrella of construction contracts. Then again, it has somewhat of a progression (e.g. initially describing legal basics, then the contract definition itself, then more specific technical topics). Overall, I think it is quite modular.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

What is really missing from this text is a comprehensive index with alphabetized keywords. Given the amount of legal terminology, being able to quickly find on which pages an item is discussed would make the book quite a bit more accessible. I found myself having to spot-check for concepts by using the word search feature in my PDF viewer.

Joint ventures should have been moved under contract types and delivery methods and does not need a separate chapter. Job order contracts are entirely missing in the text.

Interface rating: 5

The online and PDF documents are easily navigable and the random sampling of links that I have tested work fine. The lower quality PDF (with smaller file size) is actually perfectly fine and readable and I did not see any evidence of lower resolution. I liked the very clean and fresh format, kudos to the editorial library staff at Virginia Tech.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

A very small quibble is slightly unusual language such as 'owner/contractor responsibility delays' instead of 'owner/contractor responsible delays'.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Given the subject matter of construction contract, the book abstains completely from any cultural or other insensitivities and focuses entirely on its stated topic.

Comments

This is a solid and particularly readable introduction to construction contracts. It has very good reflection questions at chapter endings.
For more information on delay analysis, contract claims, and disputes, which are only very lightly covered, readers are advised to look at specific books on those topics.