Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 19 — Bachara Construction Law Group has released its 2025 Construction Law Year in Review, highlighting the contract, claim, and payment-rights issues that shaped projects throughout Florida over the past year. Drawing from a full year of blog articles, videos, and case insights, the firm’s attorneys recap the trends that most affected Florida contractors, developers, design professionals, community associations, and owners.
In 2025, BCLG’s client and construction community education efforts focused on three core themes: written contracts that actually manage risk, pre-suit and mediation strategies in defect claims, and Florida lien laws that protect payment rights when projects go sideways.
1. Contracts: The Fine Print That Drove Disputes In 2025
Early in the year, Bachara published Why Written Contracts Matter: Protecting Your Construction Project in Florida and followed it with Key Clauses in Construction Contracts: How They Impact Your Business and Understanding the Fine Print: Key Contract Clauses in Florida Construction Law. Together, these pieces underscored that a construction dispute may begin on the job site, but the contract determines how it will resolve.
The articles emphasized six recurring contract issues for Florida projects:
- Flow-down clauses that quietly bind subcontractors to prime contracts they may never see
- Liquidated damages provisions that can become unfair penalties if not drafted carefully
- Pay-if-paid language that shifts owner’s nonpayment risk downstream to subs who have no insight into the owner’s finances
- Broad defense and indemnity clauses that effectively create an open-ended obligation to fund both damages and legal fees
- Insurance and additional insured requirements that determine whether coverage is available when defects or accidents occur
- Dispute resolution clauses that steer cases into arbitration or litigation, with very different cost and timing implications
A midyear blog post, Arbitration vs. Litigation in Construction Contracts: A Guide to Resolving Disputes, helped contractors weigh the tradeoffs between speed and formality when choosing where their disputes will be resolved. The piece stressed the importance of aligning dispute resolution language with project size, complexity, and insurance considerations rather than relying on old boilerplate.
Taken together, the 2025 contract series pointed to a simple conclusion for Florida builders: the best time to win a construction dispute is before anyone signs.
2. Claims: Florida’s 558 Process And Mediation In Tampa Bay
As construction defect claims continued to rise in Tampa Bay condominium and community developments in 2025, Bachara devoted two major articles to pre-suit procedures and negotiated resolutions: Florida’s 558 Process: Construction Law in Tampa, St. Pete, and Jacksonville and Mediation in Florida Construction Law: Tampa, St. Pete & Jacksonville.
The 558 article walked associations, owners, and contractors through Florida’s statutory pre-suit process, explaining how:
- Owners and associations must give notice of alleged defects before filing suit
- Contractors and subcontractors are given a defined window, typically 60 to 120 days, depending on project size, to inspect and respond
- The process is designed to act as a cooling-off period that encourages repairs and negotiated resolutions instead of immediate litigation
For associations in Florida, the article explained how turnover studies often reveal water intrusion, stucco failures, roof problems, and related damage, and how 558 notices are used to build claims that line up with insurance coverage. For contractors, the firm highlighted the importance of prompt inspections, confirming additional insured status under subcontractor policies, and using the process to separate true defects from maintenance or misuse.
The follow-up mediation article then mapped how most significant construction disputes progress from a 558 notice to a lawsuit and then into court-ordered mediation. Bachara noted that:
- Mediation is now a near-universal step before trial in Florida construction cases
- Associations often use targeted defendant strategies and assignments of claims to build leverage against subcontractors
- Well-drafted subcontract agreements and early involvement of subs can help general contractors shift responsibility where it belongs
- Insurance adjusters are often the real decision makers, focusing on liability, documented damages, and coverage when deciding how much to offer
The firm’s 2025 guidance stressed that mediation in construction cases is not a formality. It is a pivotal moment where preparation, documentation, and messaging can significantly reduce or increase exposure for both sides.
3. Payment Rights: Lien Laws, Negotiation, And Getting Paid
Payment challenges remained a defining issue in Florida construction throughout 2025, particularly for contractors and subcontractors who cannot reclaim work already built into an owner’s property. Bachara Group’s articles Hammer Down Your Rights: Protecting Payments in Florida Construction Projects and Using Construction Lien Laws in Florida to Protect Your Payment Rights focused on how lien rights give contractors real leverage, but only when the statute is followed precisely.
In this series, the firm highlighted several non-negotiable rules for Jacksonville and Tampa Bay projects:
- Contractors without a direct contract with the owner must serve a proper Notice to Owner within 45 days of first work on the project
- Claims of lien must be recorded within 90 days of last substantive work, not including punch list items or minor touchups
- Claims of lien must be accurate in both property information and dollar amounts, since overstated or careless liens can be attacked as fraudulent
- Before filing a foreclosure action, contractors must serve a contractor’s final affidavit listing unpaid subcontractors and suppliers, and must meet strict timing requirements
A companion article, How to Negotiate a Florida Construction Lien Before Litigation, encouraged contractors to view a properly filed lien not only as a path to foreclosure, but also as a strong starting point for business-minded negotiation. By combining statutory rights with strategic communication, Bachara advised, many payment disputes can be resolved at the conference table instead of the courthouse.
Across these pieces, the firm’s message to Florida contractors was consistent: build internal systems around lien deadlines and documentation now, or risk losing hard earned receivables later.
4. 2025 Milestones: Super Lawyers And “Best Law Firm” Recognition
Alongside its educational work, 2025 was a year of major professional recognition for Bachara Construction Law Group. The firm earned national and international honors, being named to Chambers and Partners’ Florida Regional Spotlight for a second year — one of only nine construction law practices in the state to be recognized — and being ranked again as a “Best Law Firms in America” Tier 1 metropolitan firm for both Construction Law and Construction Litigation. Founding partner Chip Bachara and Tampa partner Hugh D. Higgins were once again selected by their peers as Florida Super Lawyers, marking 20 consecutive years of recognition for Bachara and 12 for Higgins, and Jacksonville partner Todd Whitcomb was named a “Best Lawyers” One to Watch for the second time. Chip was also named Jacksonville’s Lawyer of the Year for Construction Litigation by Best Lawyers in America, the seventh time he has been so honored.
5. Key Takeaways For 2026
Bachara’s 2025 Construction Law Year in Review ends with three practical lessons for the year ahead:
- Invest in better contracts. Align scope, change order, indemnity, liquidated damages, insurance, and dispute resolution clauses with the realities of Florida construction, not one size fits all forms.
- Treat 558 notices and mediation as strategic turning points. Use them to shape the narrative, preserve insurance coverage, and move toward resolution in defect claims.
- Guard payment rights proactively. Build processes that track Notice to Owner requirements, lien deadlines, and final affidavits so no receivable is lost because a date slipped.
The full set of 2025 articles is available on the firm’s News page at bacharagroup.com, including in-depth guidance on contracts, claims, mediation, and Florida lien laws for construction projects in Jacksonville, Tampa, St. Petersburg and throughout the state.
About Bachara Construction Law Group
Bachara Construction Law Group serves the legal needs of the construction industry throughout Florida, focusing on construction defect claims, contract disputes, catastrophic failures and accidents, insurance coverage disputes, lien and bond claims, delays and liquidated damages, and arbitration and mediation. With offices in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg, the firm represents public and private owners, developers, design professionals, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers on projects across Tampa Bay and the Southeast.
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