Which Comes First—Responsibility or Liability?

Abstract

By definition, liability is a legal issue, and responsibility is a moral and ethical issue. For civil engineers, responsibility must come before liability, because our prime concern must be the integrity of our work. To remain in business, however, we must protect ourselves from liability claims. A number of alternatives are available such as unified risk insurance and quality assurance. There is also a need for a national organization to investigate the liability environment. Our philosophy should be that responsibility will lead to better projects, thus giving less cause for liability claims.