“Don’t” by Danielle Scott via Flickr
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“Don’t” by Danielle Scott via Flickr/CC license.
Category Archives: tips
Second Primary Election Tomorrow in NC
If you live in North Carolina, please review this post to see if you have a second primary election tomorrow and, if so, please remember to vote. Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The following second-primary races will be held:
Democratic:
- US Senate–Elaine Marshall v. Cal Cunningham
- NC State Senate District 21— Eric L. Mansfield v. Lula Crenshaw
Republican:
- US House of Representatives District 8– Harold Johnson v. Tim D’Annunzio
- US House of Representatives District 12– Greg Dority v. Scott Cumbie
- US House of Represeventatives District 13– William (Bill) Randall v. Bernie Reeves
There are also at least a few municipal/local run-off elections. For a sample ballot for your voting district, head to the NC Board of Elections website.
Tuesday Tidbit: Modernist Home Tour this weekend
Interested in modernist homes and live in the Triangle? If so, you might want to check out the Triangle Modernist Houses Thompson House tour this coming Saturday, June 19th.
From the Triangle Modernist website:
One of the Triangle’s most remarkable houses! Built in 2001 and commissioned in 1999, the Bobby and Diane Thompson Residence was designed by David Davenport. It was built by the Splinter Group and Tom Brown with Bobby Thompson actively managing much of the construction. A 6000-square-foot, two-story home engineered of heavy steel and wood construction covered in real stucco. Includes a go-kart track modeled on Bristol International Speedway and a 3400 sf garage/apartment. Interior design by Lynda Lankford. Lighting by Stan Pomeranz of Lighttech Design.
The Thompson house is part of a ten house tour by the Triangle Modernist Houses, which aims to showcase the metro-Raleigh area, which has the third largest collection of modernist houses in the country.
How to Smartly Handle Project Documents
Paperwork by luxomedia via Flickr
In the Contract Risks Management Group on LinkedIn, L.H. Chin wrote an article about file keeping for contract risk management. Basically, his premise is that if you cannot keep your Project files orderly, you have exponentially increased your chances of a problem later. His particular example dealt with originals versus reproduced copies, which is only somewhat germane to North Carolina contracts. (Here, copies can be used as evidence most of the time—though not always). His main point, however, about the ability to minimize future risks by having good document control policies in place, is something every project manager should think about.
Here are a few tips of my own in that regard:
1. File all communications in one place. Don’t keep faxes in one file, email in another, and letters in a third. Don’t keep incoming and outgoing correspondence separated by vendor. Keep it all in one chronological file. If you ever find yourself needing legal assistance, this will save many hours and untold stress for everybody.
1.b. Caveat: don’t feel like you need to print out every email. Do, however, maintain a separate email e-folder for the Project, and go ahead and print those really crucial, smoking gun emails.
2. If you insist on violating Rule 1 (and I know those of you who read this blog would never consider such a thing, right?): Have all the files, categories, and such you want, but please also make a “master” chronological file of all correspondence. Just do it.
3. If you have any communications with your lawyer, an insurance representative (outside of the normal bonding paperwork), or otherwise have documents relating to potential claims, do keep them separate. Put all such correspondence, in a folder marked “legal,” away from the Project file to prevent inadvertent disclosure to anyone else if there is ever litigation on the matter.
3.b If in doubt whether something should be in “legal” or “correspondence”, err on the side of “legal.” Your attorney can always change the classification later, but she can’t put the genie back in the bottle if something that is privileged is mistakenly given to a party suing you.
If you have any questions about these tips, or want to discuss your current procedure for record management, shoot me an email. My contact information can be found on my Firm bio or at the Footer of the Blog. Or, you can simply leave me a note in the comments.___________________________________
Photo: “Paperwork” by luxomedia via Flickr/CC license.
Need to caclulate 120 days from date of last furnishing for a notice of lien?
Just a quick resource note:
Photo by Andres Rueda via Flickr*
As anyone who has had the misfortune of sitting through the North Carolina General Contractor’s exam can tell you, there are two very important deadlines to keep in mind if you are not getting paid on a project– 120 days and 180 days. These are dates associated with filing a Notice of Claim of Lien on Real Property and Notice of Claim of Lien upon Funds, and the date associated with perfecting a Claim of Lien with a Complaint. Once these dates have passed, you may still sue to collect unpaid fees, but your statutory lien rights are lost (and with them, your most likely chance to get attorney fees). There is no room for error here. One good site to bookmark is this online Date Calculator. Use it to plug in the date of last furnishing to determine your notice and complaint deadlines. For future reference, I have added a permanent link to this calculator to the “Resources” page.
50 state lien law resource:
If you need to know the basic notice and filing requirements of lien laws in other states, check out this article which details mechanic lien law information in all 50 states.
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Photo “ASIO fx-991MS SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR” by Andres Rueda via Flickr and made available via an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License.