Insights · Martin | Hild, P.A.

Articles

Newest first. Two are published as PDFs only.

These articles were written for general education and were current when published. The law changes; nothing here is legal advice for any particular situation, and reading it creates no lawyer-client relationship.

September 2026Your chatbot can’t take the FifthThe age of Artificial Intelligence has arrived. But using a public AI chatbot can be like shouting your secrets in a crowded elevator. This article is a brief review of recent court decisions you should use as a cautionary warning the next time you ask AI to help you evaluate a potential legal problem.
April 2020Navigating COVID-19 for the construction industryKeeping essential work moving, and documenting the impacts while they are happening.
March–April 2019Thou shall not work without a proper licenseA roadmap for the good guys.
March 2016Teaming agreements: traps, pitfalls and other entanglementsA casual date with no strings, or married without knowing it. Calling it a teaming agreement does not stop it being a contract.
December 2015Payment clauses — timing provisions: reasonableness is in the eye of the beholderWhen a pay-if-paid clause is read as a pay-when-paid clause, how long a sub can be made to wait is up to the judge.
September 2015You win… but you still lose. The duty to defend and what it means to youThe duty to defend turns on what was alleged, not on what was proved, so you can win the case and still owe the fees.
June 2015Can an email serve as written notice?Electronic signatures are enforceable. Proving receipt, and writing an email a court will read as notice, is the harder half.
March 2015Pay-if-paid clauses: is it the cure-all for primes?A valid clause shifts the owner's non-payment risk onto the sub. Texas has since put duties back on the prime.
December 2014Patent v. latent defects: why this distinction is importantThe Slavin doctrine, and how far Florida courts have extended it to design professionals.
September 2014The implied duty of good faith and fair dealingA duty nobody wrote down can still defeat a clause somebody did, including no damage for delay.
July 20142013 court decision presents interesting take on indemnification analysisIn Pilot, the court read the complaint rather than the indemnity clause, and § 725.06 never bit.
November 2013New Florida public records law impacts government contractorsSection 119.0701 did not widen the Public Records Act. It gave it teeth, and put them in your contract.
July 2013New Daubert standard in Florida limits expert evidence at trialFlorida drops Frye for Daubert, and the pre-trial hearing becomes a trial within a trial.
June 2013Florida legislature provides design professionals a limitation of liability for claims of negligenceWhat the statute requires before an architect or engineer can cap individual liability by contract.
April 2012Proving a delay claim (and defending against them)Choosing the method, managing the expert, and not ceding the case to either.
March 2010Mediating the construction dispute — keys to success (or failure)Gregory S. Martin on knowing the issues, evaluating risk, the demand, the joint session and closing the deal.
UndatedMeaningful mediation: a strategy to make the first one countGregory S. Martin on making the first mediation count by preparing the attorney, the client, the other side, the authority to settle and the choice of mediator.

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The firm's law update, as published. Each issue opens as a PDF.

Back issues are reproduced as they were published and are not updated. Two further issues are held back pending confirmation of which file belongs to which date.

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