Construction Law question: Criminal Charges for Unbalanced bidding?

Bout tree fiddy or 288

Per plans and specs. Engineers and architects want to talk the talk, they better walk the walk.

And we have a winner in Poochie.

Buncha kids in law school might could figure this out for like $50.

Buncha lawyers on TV all desperate and shite. Call them.

If found out on local, state or federal level you can be debarred from competition for public contracts.

It does sound a lot like he does.

Finally a topic I know a little about, but not an expert. I assume you mean a public works unit price contract and not a lump sum with a schedule of values. I also assume your professor was a JAG, contracting officer, or AUSA to have that attitude, but here are my somewhat verbose thoughts.

Unbalancing can affect acceptance of what is the true low bid considering the time value of the price if it it front loaded. Federal Acquisition regulations make the distinction between a mathematically unbalanced bid and a materially unbalanced bid for rejection of the lowest bid. 48 CFR 14.404-2(g), 15.404-1(g)(1)-(3), 52.214-10(e), FAR 52.214-19(d). If the owner doesn't catch front loading, there may not be enough money left to finish the job in case of default or the surety may even try to claim a pro tanto discharge.

That materially unbalanced definition also addresses insuring that the contractor can't take advantage of a bust in the estimated quantities. All public unit price contracts I have seen also include an affirmative duty, which is probably tacitly covered by good faith/clean hands or "fraud by silence" vitiating consent, to notify the owner of any error in the estimated quantities that the bidder knew or should have known of. Otherwise, all bidders aren't bidding on the same scope and an owner might allege the letting/contract was a nullity and it becomes quantum meruit. If it is a serious overrun of a major item, it may cause the item to be deleted and then paid by force account, to be renegotiated at a certain threshold (usually 125% of the estimated quantity), or cause a rescission/termination due to error/lack of consent/nullity. If the public owner could prove the bidder knew of the error, stayed silent, and intended to take advantage of it, I guess it could possibly get to a false claims act/mail fraud/wire fraud criminal level. Usually it's just an estoppel/rescission claim situation as the contractor isn't usually a design professional or retains possession of take-offs showing they knew of the bust and intended to take advantage of it. The owners in my experience are reluctant to make it criminal because if the contractor unbalances it the wrong way through negligence or bad luck, the owner never offers any relief, nor really has any authority to do so.

There is a big difference between proving civil fraud under the Civil Code and criminal intent. Also, that whole "contract is the law between the parties" thing makes it tough and, honestly, I find design professionals hate to admit that a lowly contractor found an error in 30 days or less looking at plans they took months or years to develop.

I always front load like a mug. No fair? Don't care

in my commercial experience, front loading happens. but definitely not to that extent. I also very rarely do unit price work so take that fwiw