On April 13, 2015, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law House Bill 2336, the Arizona Design Professional Prompt Payment Act. Effective July 3, 2015, the bill amends several of the existing sections of the Arizona prompt payment statutes to extend protection for design professionals who perform work on public construction projects.

The Act defines "design professionals" to include:

Section 34-221 of the Arizona Revised Statutes is being amended to extend a contractor's prompt payment obligations to its design professionals. This section of the Arizona Revised Statutes applies to construction contracts with:

This amendment requires contractors and subcontractors to pay their design professionals within seven days of receiving payment. The design professional is also entitled to 1% prompt pay interest a month on late payments. Only design professionals who are subcontracted to a prime contractor or subcontractor are affected by the change. The statute does not apply to design professionals who contract directly with the public owner.

Section 41-2577 of the Arizona Revised Statutes applies to construction contracts with the state of Arizona and is amended similarly to Section 34-221. This means that design professionals working for the contractor or subcontractor in a state construction project are now entitled to prompt payment protection.

Section 28-411 of the Arizona Revised Statutes is being amended to expand the rights of design professionals working under construction contracts with the Arizona Department of Transportation. This amendment requires that the Department pay its design professionals a reasonable amount for its services. However, this amendment does not bestow prompt payment rights to design professionals similar to the other two amended statutes.

Although somewhat limited in that it only applies to public projects where the design professional is working for a contractor or subcontractor, the Arizona Design Professional Prompt Payment Act provides statutory protection to design professionals that did not previously exist.

In addition, even though these amendments do not apply to a public entity's direct contract with a design professional, they may signal a first step toward providing greater protections for design professionals.