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The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to wreak havoc on commercial as well as residential construction projects in North Florida with the limited end in sight. Construction project delays and even suspensions are being brought about by a partial/complete shutdown of the permitting/inspection departments in Duval County. The COVID-19 outbreak is causing local construction contractors, developers, and even material supplies to face these and other challenges. According to interviews conducted with local contractors, inspections have almost come to a standstill and many ongoing projects are on hold until inspections can be completed causing construction firms to consider strategies to help mitigate the impact and decrease their losses. As such, construction firms may need to seek the advice and counsel of a qualified and experienced construction law attorney in Jacksonville Florida for a thorough contract review of the force majeure provisions. These are usually incorporated in construction contracts to protect contractors and provide relief in circumstances that are considered to be “legal acts of god” as this pandemic certainly is. These types of clauses may allow contractors to obtain limited time extensions on project completions and possibly even recover additional costs or be able to increase their total payment terms. Construction law attorneys are well versed in handling these types of issues brought about by a global pandemic, the magnitude of which has never been seen before.
Inspections and Permit Requirements
The Duval County Building Inspection Divisions began “appointment only services” recently and even new inspections will be performed with limitations. Additionally, the Building Inspection Division now requires all permit applications submitted electronically and an Electronic Plan Review (EPR) for all permit types both commercial and residential. Contractors are also required to create a Design Professional Profile for all online submissions complete with digital signatures that comply with Florida Statutes of architects and engineers. A qualified construction law attorney will be familiar with these and all state statutes governing construction firms.
At Heekin Law, P.A., Geoffrey Heekin, Ariel Spires, and Chelsey Pankratz understand the many legal issues that have arisen during the recent pandemic. We know the best way to protect a construction firm or different entity involved in the construction industry begins with the drafting of contracts and assisting with other legal matters. We also know it is not always possible to have been involved in the original contract drafting and documentation, but we are always happy to review contracts, any documentation, or troubleshoot any business issue in order to minimize risk and future conflicts. Safeguarding your business has been our chief concern for over 25 years. Our longstanding relationships with the construction businesses we serve are the foundation of our legal practice. We act as in-house counsel to many firms replacing the expense of lawyers on their payroll, that go unutilized until an issue arises. Heekin Law, P.A. is a full-service commercial law firm adept in all aspects of construction and business law. We pride ourselves on providing cost-effective legal assistance in matters ranging from business formations, contract drafting, and negotiation, to advice on avoiding legal disputes and commercial litigation. Give us a call at 904-355-7000 for a free, no-obligation consultation. We have online or in-person consultations available. Visit our website @ jax-law.com for a complete list of our legal services and credentials.
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