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The construction industry in general, from suppliers to contractors, to property managers and developers, has not yet seen the full effect of the coronavirus outbreak as has the retail and foodservice sectors of our economy. Many businesses are facing completely new challenges and are exploring ways to keep their doors open with reduced staff, providing limited services and declining customer revenues. For the construction industry as a whole, what is becoming more and more evident is that as the number of people becomes infected or as the economy becomes less and less stable, pressures on the building industry will inevitably impact ongoing construction projects. COVID-19 is disrupting all aspects of work and leisure life as we know it. Many peripheral industries like real estate, mortgage lenders, banking and title companies for both commercial and residential applications are all seeing declines in their businesses. The question now becomes, will contractors be able to complete work in a timely manner or will projects ultimately face delays, temporary closures or even possible terminations. As a general rule, construction contracts require a contractor to perform all work in a timely fashion until the project is completed or face potential damages. If you are a contractor you may have a question about the specific performance of any contracts you are engaged in and what protections, if any are available against possible projects being impacted by this virus outbreak. Heekin Law, P.A., a Florida Construction Law Specialist, has extensive experience in identifying and limiting client exposure due to issues like these and other types of problems that may arise due to the unique circumstances we now face. Geoff Heekin and Hunter Malin, principal partners, are construction law attorneys practicing in all of Central and North Florida. We represent defendants and claimants in many actions including but not limited to: construction agreements, construction liens, construction defects, licensing, non-performance/completion, construction delays, subcontractor agreements and breach of construction contracts. Our diversified practice also includes all aspects of business law, from transactional services to litigation. In most construction matters there can be many parties involved such as architects, engineers, property owners, property developers, general contractors and sub and many more affiliated parties. The practice of construction law is a highly specialized and unique legal practice that involves specific laws and regulations that pertain to the construction industry.
At Heekin Law, P.A. our practice is centered around resolving disputes quickly and creating durable outcomes for our clients. We understand that the handling of construction issues are not only financially sensitive due to the size and scope of construction projects, but often require immediate dispute resolution to put back in place ongoing projects affecting numerous parties. With more than 85 years of shared construction law experience, our attorneys have amounted a record of positive results and satisfied clients throughout the State of Florida. Experienced and skilled negotiators, tested trial attorneys who seek amicable resolutions but are prepared to argue in local, state and federal court to resolve any construction dispute if necessary. Give us a call in our Jacksonville office today for a free, no-obligation consultation. We want to hear your story and protect your legal rights. Call us at 904-355-7000. Visit our website at Jax-Law.Com for a complete list of our services and qualifications.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to