This article offers Maryland contractors and subcontractors a practical outline of some of the legal principles applicable to their daily business activities in an effort to help them anticipate problems and to be better equipped to resolve potential disputes with a minimum of difficulty and expense.

A limited outline such as this cannot provide legal advice and does not contain the "solution" to particular legal problems. Rather, it is intended to provide a conceptual framework against which to analyze some of the contractual issues which may arise in the day-to-day operations of Maryland construction companies. The hope is that this summary may better equip those companies to identify, analyze and assure the solution of legal issues as they arise rather than being forced to await the development of a full-blown crisis.