Examining unawareness of construction law principles from a small contractor's perspective

Ketaki Shiralkar, Purdue University

Abstract

Construction industry encompasses myriads of small trades within itself. If we take a microscope and observe, what looks from outside as one big single unit, is in fact made up of many small cogs of a wheel, important ones though, as without them, the functionality of the industry wouldn't be proper. As much as the existence of these small scale contractor's companies is important, so is their survival. There have been many reasons as to why contractors fail, but this study is limited to focus on one of them, which is, the absence of legal knowledge among employees of a contracting firm. During a short exposure to an American sub-contractor firm, the author noticed a potential hazard which could take the company down sooner or later. After brief interaction with the President of the company, and its employees, the author decided to delve deeper into this topic, and find out if such was the case with other small construction firms in the state of Indiana as well. Interviews were thus conducted with employees who willingly came forward to participate. After compiling the data from the answers, a result was generated that there is a lack of legal education within construction companies and thus many face litigations which could otherwise be avoided. In the end, a few steps have been suggested by the author, which if undertaken, could save a lot of money for the company, and at times, save it from bankruptcy too.

Degree

M.Sc.B.C.M.

Advisors

ORCZYK, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Civil engineering

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