The United States Supreme Court resolved a split among the federal appeals courts on the question of whether private international arbitration tribunals can be considered to be either “foreign” or “international” tribunals for purposes of a federal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1782, which permits discovery from persons located in the
Virginia has joined the growing number of states that prohibit “pay-if-paid” clauses. The new law, known as Virginia Senate Bill 550, amends Virginia’s Prompt Payment Act (Va. Code § 2.2-4354) and its relatively new (July 1, 2020) wage theft statute (Va. Code § 11-4.6) and applies to public construction contracts and private construction contracts that
In response to industry questions about economic price adjustments for inflation, the Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued Guidance on Inflation and Economic Price Adjustments. Key takeaways from DoD’s guidance — which aims to help contracting officers (COs) “understand whether it is appropriate to recognize cost increases due to inflation under existing contracts as
The Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) recently issued its annual report to Congress on federal government suspension and debarment activities for fiscal year (FY) 2020. Key takeaways from the year’s ISDC report are discussed below.
Created by Executive Order 12549, the ISDC is an interagency
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in SEKRI, Inc. v. United States, recently added to the growing body of case law that has declined to extend the scope of the Blue & Gold waiver rule. Under the Blue & Gold rule, “a party who has the opportunity to object to the
Construction law is NOT boring, at least that’s what I tell my daughters. In these series of posts, I will explore some of the VERY interesting historical facts about construction law that can be used at your next motion hearing, family gathering, social event or fellow lawyer meeting. While these anecdotes may not keep your
More than seven months ago, on September 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, which imposed a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on many federal contractors and subcontractors. As we have previously reported, the order intended to use the federal government’s contracting power to increase the number of vaccinated people. Since then, 26 states
As part of the first “comprehensive regulatory review” in nearly 40 years, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently proposed to amend, update, and “modernize” the regulations at 29 CFR parts 1, 3, and 5, which implement the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) and the Davis-Bacon Related Acts (collectively, the DBRA). The background on and an overview of
As in recent years, the False Claims Act (“FCA”) continued to serve as a primary tool utilized by the federal government against government contractors in 2021. The government collected more than $150 million in matters involving the government’s purchase of goods and services, including allegations related to the procurement process, failing to comply with contract
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it obtained more than $5.6 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgment in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021. This is the second largest annual total in FCA history and the largest since 2014.
DOJ reports that “matters that involved the health care industry”