The Governor signed a new law today which limits a public agency’s ability to impose indemnity obligations on design professionals. AB 573 (Wolk) creates a new Civil Code section 2782.8 which makes indemnity clauses imposed by public agencies on design professionals (including architects, landscape architects, engineers and land surveyors) unenforceable except to the extent that they are based on the negligence, recklessness or willful misconduct of the design professional. Click here to see the text of the bill. Design professionals will obviously find this to be welcome news. It may also clarify an issue which is often a source of conflict between public agency owners and design professionals.
