Daniel Moody, P.A.

04/16/2023

If you do nothing else to prepare for having your deposition taken in a civil case, memorize this reel.

08/10/2017

http://www.wtsp.com/news/investigations/its-horrible-woman-left-with-shoddy-garage-job-from-unlicensed-contractors/462434765

Unfortunately, this is something that's happening all too often.

07/14/2017

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/hey-pinellas-homeowers-the-county-does-target-unlicensed-contractors/2330406

Whenever homeowners were fleeced out of their money by unlicensed contractors, the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board was once considered consumers' first line of defense.

06/23/2017

I generally do not represent homeowners in construction defect cases, but my clients are such nice people who are going through a very difficult time, and for this unlicensed contractor to take advantage of them under these circumstances has made me furious. I can't wait to cross-examine "Dead Perez" in front of a jury!

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/lawsuit-florida-contractor-fakes-death-to-dodge-angry-homeowners/2328232 #

SEMINOLE — For weeks, Glenn Holland, 67, crawled out of bed before the sun rose to look for a dead man.

06/05/2017

A SUCCESSFUL HOME REMODELING OR REPAIR PROJECT BEGINS WITH CAREFUL CONTRACTOR SELECTION.

Before hiring ANYONE to perform any home remodeling or home repair services, there are basic steps every homeowner should take to investigate the contractor before signing a contract. These include:

1. Determine whether the work requires the contractor to hold a construction license issued by the State of Florida (Construction Industry Licensing Board) or by the local jurisdiction (typically the County), or whether no license is required for the work. If you are uncertain, you can usually get an independent answer to the question from your local construction licensing board.

The broad categories of construction licenses issued by the State are General Contractor, Building Contractor, and Residential Contractor. These licenses allow the contractor to enter into a contract to perform a full scope of work for the qualifying type of structure. In addition, there are numerous state construction contractor license categories for specialized work, including: Sheet Metal Contractor; Roofing Contractor; Class A, B, and C Air Conditioning Contractor; Mechanical Contractor; Commercial Pool/Spa Contractor; Residential Pool/Spa Contractor; Swimming Pool/Spa Servicing Contractor; Plumbing Contractor; Underground Utility and Excavation Contractor; Solar Contractor; and Pollutant Storage Systems Contractor. Definitions of the work each is authorized to perform can be found at Florida Statutes Section 489.105.

Depending on your county of residence, there may be very strict or very loose and limited licensing requirements beyond those required by the State of Florida. Pinellas County, for instance, has the most stringent licensing requirements of any county in the State. You can find out if a license is required for the scope of work you want to have performed by contacting the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board at 727-582-3100 or checking out the Consumer Information, How to Choose a Contractor link on their website at www.pcclb.com.

2. If a license is required to perform the work, verify that the contractor you are considering has a current and valid license to perform the work. You can search for state construction licenses by individual or business names at www.myfloridalicense.com. Checking for license status on a local level varies by county. In Pinellas County, you can search by individual or business name, or scroll through the list of all local license holders, www.pcclb.com.

3. If the contractor is a company (as opposed to an individual), verify that the company is active and current in its filings with the Florida Secretary of State, Division of Corporations, by searching for the corporate records by business name at www.myflorida.com/sunbiz/. While you are on that site, check for any unsatisfied Judgment Lien Certificates which indicate that there is an unsatisfied judgment entered against the contractor. That could impact your project and potentially bring it to an abrupt halt if an existing creditor of the contractor were to use the judicial process to garnish, attach or levy on funds or property of the contractor.

4. Check for any history of complaints against the contractor using the Construction Industry Licensing Board website. When you find the page with the contractor's license information, there is a link on the bottom of the page to check their complaint history.

5. Check for any history of complaints against the contractor with the any local consumer protection agency. In Pinellas County, you can check with the Pinellas County Department of Consumer Protection, 727-464-6200.

6. Check for any reviews of the contractor with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org. You can also Google the contractor and check for reviews on Yelp, Angie's List and other websites which provide reviews of contractors.

7. Check for any unsatisfied court judgments against the contractor. Not all judgments result in a Judgment Lien Certificate being filed. Therefore, a search under paragraph 3 above will not always reveal all unsatisfied judgments. You should also search the public records of your county as well as other counties where the contractor conducts business. In Pinellas County, you can search the Official Records at http://www.pinellascounty.org/public_records.htm. Click on the Official Records, Deeds & Mortgages link and search using the contractor's name. While on this site you can also check for civil court records to see if the contractor has been involved in any civil lawsuits or had criminal charges filed. If there have been civil lawsuits relating to construction, you should try to find out more about claims in the lawsuit(s).

8. Check to see if the contractor has filed bankruptcy recently. This can be done using the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. Information on PACER can be found at http://www.flmb.uscourts.gov/pacer/.

9. In Pinellas County, another free search that doesn't hurt to check is the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department's Who's in Jail search at http://www.pcsoweb.com/whos-in-jail. What you find there may sometimes surprise you.

10. Independently verify that the contractor has liability and workers compensation insurance. Request a Certificate of Insurance from the contractor and then call the agent or insurance company to verify the coverage. Certificates of Insurance are easily faked, so calling to verify coverage is important. You can check to see if the contractor has workers compensation insurance on the website for the Florida Department of Financial Services website at https://apps8.fldfs.com/proofofcoverage/Search.aspx

11. Ask for references and contact the references to get their opinion and find out their experiences with the contractor. Don't just accept the references the contractor volunteers. Ask for contact information for the owners on jobs the contractor is currently working on and on projects that were most recently completed. Ask if you can see (in person) examples of the contractor's completed projects. Make sure the contractor has successful experiences with the type of work you are looking to have performed.

The foregoing may sound like a lot of work, but the time you spend carefully and thoroughly investigating a potential contractor before you reach an agreement to have work performed may save you countless hours of inconvenience and frustration, as well as substantial amounts of money, later on.

THE FOREGOING DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE AS TO ANY SPECIFIC OR PARTICULAR SET OF FACTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES, AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS LEGAL ADVICE. THE FOREGOING DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. THE FOREGOING IS INFORMATIONAL ONLY. AN EXPERIENCED CONSTRUCTION ATTORNEY SHOULD BE CONSULTED BEFORE CONTRACTING FOR ANY MAJOR HOME REMODELING OR REPAIRS.

07/31/2016

Effective August 1, 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be significantly increasing fines for standard violations. The fines will increase 78.2% in this first increase in over 20 years. This means that the maximum fine for a willful violation will increase from $70,000.00 to $124,709.00 per violation. In light of this substantial increase in penalties, it is reasonable to expect that the odds of any given project being visited by an OSHA inspector will be greater. Do your project management personnel and other employees know what to do and what not to do if an OSHA Compliance Officer visits one of your project sites and begins questioning the employees?

07/11/2016

NEW OVERTIME REGULATION PROJECTED
TO AFFECT OVER 4 MILLION WORKERS

A new federal regulation goes into effect on December 1, 2016 that is projected by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) to automatically extend overtime pay requirements to over 4 million workers previously exempted from the overtime protection. Under the new regulation most salaried employees must be paid time-and-a-half for hours worked beyond 40 hours per week if their annual salary is $47,476 or less. This is an increase from the current level of $23,660 established in 2004. The new regulations also raises the total annual compensation requirement for “highly compensated employees” who are subject to the minimum duties test to $134,004. If you want to watch a webinar given by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor on the new regulations, or view the frequently asked questions page, you can cut and paste this link: https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/

Section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act provides an exemption from both the minimum wage requirement and the overtime pay requirement for bona fide “executive,” “administrative,” “professional” and “outside sales” employees, as well as certain “computer” employees. Links to the DOL Fact Sheets which establish the criteria for each of these exemptions can be found at https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17r_geico.htm.

US Department of Labor: The Wage and Hour mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the Nation's workforce.