Consensus DOCS
Folks at Nigro Firm were very excited when the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) announced on September 28, 2007 the publication of the “ConsensusDOCS,” which includes more than 70 collaboratively drafted construction contracts. These were drafted by a diverse group of 20 construction associations representing designers, owners, contractors, subcontractors, and sureties. The new ConsensusDOCS represent the first time that broad industry representation has had an equal voice in collaboratively drafting construction contracts.
The intent of the ConsensusDOCS is unique because each document was drafted to reflect the project’s best interests, rather than a single party’s interest. These documents help parties to focus on better project results, rather than negotiating risk-shifting contract terms or worse, contract claims in court, to assess fault.
Greg Sizemore, Executive Vice President of the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) noted, “For once the industry has come together in a truly collaborative way to create value for all the stakeholders.”
According to Tom Barfield, a consultant who represented the Associated Specialty Contractors, the documents were developed to ensure high ethical standards and include language specifying that work would be done in good faith. “The air of the consensus documents is to reflect best practices in the industry,” he says. “It was the basic governing principle.”
It’s good that people are looking at the industry to improve the communication and cooperation in the construction process to get projects done with minimum hassle, time, and cost. This guiding principal is shared by the Nigro Firm through its construction document coordination review services.
For more information about the ConsensusDOCS, see the following web sites.
For links to two overview articles and free samples of the ConsensusDOCS, go to:
The "official" ConsensuDOCS website with a wealth of information and sample documents:
To compare the 3 different construction contracts that were published last year by the three major players in the industry: