At ENR’s “Risk Summit” last month in Dallas, the editors asked my panel to ponder why Texas subcontractors weren’t “dancing in the streets” in light of seemingly favorable laws such as prompt- payment statutes, retainage restrictions and limits on indemnification. While the panel focused on Texas, the topic is relevant throughout the U.S., and I’ll explain why. Every state has a mountain of protections for the purpose of benefiting construction participants at the bottom of the contracting chain.These protections can be traced to 1791, when Thomas Jefferson introduced the nation’s first mechanics’ lien laws in Maryland. In doing so, he