People and businesses retain an engineer’s services to get important information about projects and investments. The input and expertise that engineers provide to clients could involve significant financial and logistical ramifications, so their professional liability exposure is considerable. Here are common engineer lawsuit examples that professionals in this industry need to be aware of.
Negligence
Mistakes on key analyses such as a structural evaluation or a cooling tower schematic may be the product of professional negligence. If engineers fail to exercise due care and that breach of their professional duty results in economic harm to a client, they could be legally liable for all of a client’s direct or consequential damages.
Conflict of Interest
When an engineer derives a personal benefit by advising a client to proceed with a particular course of action, it gives rise to concerns involving conflict of interest. As an example, it may be problematic for an engineer to advise clients to purchase expensive materials from a distributing company in which he or she has a financial interest. Engineers should disclose all business affiliations. It is a good practice to avoid leveraging a relationship with a client in any way that creates an appearance of impropriety.
Ultimately, engineers must be conscientious about liability issues. They should implement risk management procedures to mitigate their exposure.