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O P I N I O N
Recovering unpaid fees What does your contract say about the ability to recover legal fees or staff time incurred to recover unpaid fees? Good question, huh?
T wo recent cases show that architects with good contracts can recover not only unpaid fees for services rendered but, in some cases, termination expenses and internal costs of collection. Design professionals can learn from these cases that when seeking unpaid fees, there may be additional costs that can be recovered if proper wording is included in the contract.
William Quatman GENERAL COUNSEL
by the Architect.” The 2007 AIA form unfortunate- ly did not contain any percentage or other method to calculate “termination expenses.” “Two recent cases show that architects with good contracts can recover not only unpaid fees for services rendered but, in some cases, termination expenses and internal costs of collection.”
AIA LANGUAGE. The 2007 edition of the AIA B101 Owner-Architect Agreement, like the old B141 form, contained the following language dealing with termination: “9.6. In the event of termina- tion not the fault of the Architect, the Architect shall be compensated for services performed prior to termination, together with Reimbursable Ex- penses then due and all Termination Expenses as defined in Section 9.7.” Section 9.7 then stated: “Termination Expenses are in addition to com- pensation for the Architect’s services and include expenses directly attributable to termination for which the Architect is not otherwise compensated, plus an amount for the Architect’s anticipated profit on the value of the services not performed
See WILLIAM QUATMAN, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER July 31, 2017, ISSUE 1210
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