Mitigating Professional Liability for Civil Engineers: White Paper

Abstract

The profession of civil engineering has again come to the attention of personal injury attorneys. Recent trends in professional liability litigation show disturbing shifts, as plaintiff attorneys seek to expand the historic doctrines of what does and does not constitute professional liability for engineers. Historically, professional liability has been limited to negligence in the performance of an engineering assignment (an error or an omission). Recently, however, claims have been litigated against engineers based on such diverse additional exposures as job-site safety, product liability (e.g., defects in reports, which attorneys claim are “sold” by engineers to their clients), warranties that one’s work will meet a certain standard or fulfill certain promises, claims of damages incurred by unauthorized third-party users of reports, and similar situations. While such litigation can create legal and financial nightmares for practitioners, assistance is available in meeting and mitigating these challenges. Practitioners are urged to review the guidelines presented in this white paper, and work within their firms and with competent outside counsel to prepare specific programs and policies to address how best to mitigate their own professional liability exposures.