ConsensusDOCS for Public Contracts? Yes, In South Dakota

It will be interesting to see how quickly South Dakota begins using ConsensusDOCS for public contracts after the February 2009 legislation permitting the use of the "ConsensusDOCS 200 Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Contractor." It seems safe to assume that the South Dakota chapter of the AGC will be working hard to encourage the use of this contract form, and indeed, it probably is in use now for some public projects.




Several press releases covering passage of the law permitting the use of ConsensusDOCS 200 hailed the law as revolutionary in showing other states how to have a better and more efficient contracting process (for one such release, click here). This could be true, if the ConsensusDOCS 200 is used pretty much "as is". However, H B 1212, the law that gives permission for the use of the form, also provides that any public corporation can modify or delete any portion of it. As with most other things like this, the devil will be in the details of what changes a given public corporation makes to the form. (Post published by Karen Estelle Carey).