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Last Tuesday, April 26, Governor Nathan Deal signed HB 943 into law. This important legislation, which was introduced at ACEC Georgia's request and which was sponsored by Rep. Carl Rogers (R-Gainesville), will prohibit the use of broad form indemnification and duty to defend clauses in contracts for engineering, architectural and/or land surveying services. "Broad form" indemnification clauses require parties to assume liability for damages arising from a project without regard to which party actually caused the loss or whether the party assuming the liability is even negligent at all. Engineers and architects who have signed these clauses were literally putting their firms on the line because there is no professional liability policy or policy endorsement available that would insure this type of additional risk. 

As a result of HB 943 being signed into law, those types of clauses will be "against public policy and void and unenforceable" to quote the language of the new O.C.G.A. 13-8-2(c), which will become effective as of July 1, 2016 (note that contracts entered into prior to that effective date would not be affected).

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