In May, over 1,200 construction law professionals from across the United States gathered for West Coast Casualty’s 24th annual Construction Defect Seminar in Anaheim, CA. Numerous legal and insurance industry thought-leaders presented the latest developments in their fields, as well as innovative ideas for resolving construction disputes.
Members of our leadership team have attended West Coast Casualty’s annual seminar since the beginning. We are proud to support this excellent event, and in recent years, we have sponsored the evening cocktail reception. We always look forward to this annual opportunity to catch up with old friends, clients, and industry colleagues.
Every year, there are panel discussions and seminar sessions that explore future trends and provide excellent insights about our field. This year, one such panel was Resolving Construction Defect Claims Early, presented by J.D. Turner, Joseph Kaneda, Timothy C. Earl, Phil Collias, and Todd Schweitzer.
The panelists discussed that they are now seeing an increase in larger, more complex project types, which require a different skillset and level of analysis to resolve disputes. This is something that our construction experts are also witnessing first-hand with our assignments.
The session Why Woman Matter also brought great insight. The panel, which included Danette Beck, Lee Cunningham, Terri Mestas, Brenda Radmacher, Jena Rissman Atlass, and Dave Simons, demonstrated findings of substantial profitability benefits in having women included in a company’s key decisionmaking roles.
Another topic discussed at the conference was how drones will be affecting future construction litigation. As they become more prevalent on-site during construction, their recorded footage will become part of the project’s files and will be valuable evidence in a case’s discovery process, giving quick answers to questions that normally require thorough digging into construction documents.
Thanks to Dave and Coral Stern for yet another fantastic event. We look forward to being a part of WCCCDS again in 2018.
2017 Construction Law and Insurance Trends
TL;DR: You can read Last Year’s Construction Law and Insurance Trends where many of the trends are still continuing since the West Coast Casualty Seminar 2016. Below are some new emerging trends.
- Construction Claims are happening in larger and more complex projects
- Investigating large projects require a different set of skills and analysis, especially on experts
- EB5 Visa funded projects appear to end up more often in construction litigation
- Growing preference to perform proactive forensic investigations early on
- Drones are becoming more commonplace and their recorded footage will likely be sought after in the case discovery process
This article was originally published by Xpera Group which is now part of The Vertex Companies, LLC.