A bad surety bond can undermine all the subcontractor's work to get fair subcontract terms, but that doesn't change the fact that bond forms like these are all but fraudulent and certainly predatory.

I know the last thing a lot of you want to see is more government intervention, so why not end these practices? Use only contract clauses like the ones in model contract documents, especially ConsensusDocs, and stick to business terms that are fair to all. 

Anne Bigane Wilson, P.E., is president of Bigane Paving Co. and former president of the American Subcontractors Association. She can be reached at 312-738-0600. This is an excerpt from her keynote at ENR's recent risk conference.