Overview
Litigation in the engineering profession, specifically in construction, is at an all-time high and escalating. No matter how competent or vigilant a professional engineer is during the normal course of work, a situation can easily arise that creates conflict with a client on some level. In today’s litigious society, conflict can escalate rapidly if not addressed quickly and effectively. Depending on the client, conflict can potentially arise by simply choosing the wrong word in conversation or in a deliverable report. The best strategy is a proactive one which minimizes the circumstances that tend to give rise to conflict. However, when a situation arises that hints of potential conflict the engineer must be aware and prepared to immediately implement protective measures to prevent escalation if possible and, if not, have strategies readily available for use at each level until a dispute is resolved amicably.
This course reviews proactive and protective strategies, concepts, principles and theories of liability, contracts, insurance and bonds, professional conduct and requisite paperwork for proactive project management and effective communication. Guidelines and recommendations are provided for both the prevention and the mitigation of conflict when and if it should arise. All of the proactive strategies discussed have been proven effective in the field by the author as every dispute or miscommunication has been resolved expediently and amicably during his thirty plus year career. The information in this course is tailored specifically to issues that typically confront a professional engineer on a daily basis during the normal course of project management and client relationships. In this course, the student will review the document “Basic Risk Management for Consulting Engineers”.
To earn PDH credit, the student must pass a multiple-choice quiz consisting of twenty (20) questions.
Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:
- The difference between proactive and protective strategies
- How proactive measures can help prevent the need for protective strategies
- Guidelines and opinions on conflict management and mitigation
- Legal means of dispute resolution
- Areas of legal liability that are common to consulting engineers
- Types of, need for and advantages of contracts
- Responsibilities of parties to construction
- How obligations are created
- The importance of the term “Standard of Care”
- Words to avoid in letters, memos, emails, reports and other binding documents
- Guidelines for records retention
Course
Click on the following link to the PDF document to review the course material before taking the quiz for credit.
Basic Risk Management for Consulting Engineers
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