Professional Liability Articles

As a former hearing officer on the AIA National Ethics Council, and now a testifying expert in construction disputes, I have seen my share of Professional Ethics and Standard of Care claims. The complexity of these cases typically grows as additional parties are named in a lawsuit and when the nature of the relationships between named parties is increasingly intertwined. In determining liability and causation, it is important to first understand fundamental concepts from the world of architecture and construction; when armed with this knowledge, it is possible to systematically evaluate the performance of each party against relevant contract requirements, construction documents, building codes, industry standards, and the Standard of Care.

In this article we revisit a case in which a building owner claimed that damage to his building was caused by vibrations associated with a construction project on an adjacent property.

In this case, a patron at a nightclub climbed up on top of a 3 foot high speaker box platform and danced off the edge. Many people were sued. Robson Forensic was engaged after it was claimed that the developer’s architect, who reviewed the tenant drawings for the club, should have required guard rails around the top of the platform.