Negligence and Liability for Engineers
Summary: Co-facilitated by an engineer and a lawyer, this online course focuses on an engineers’ potential liabilities, and how they can best manage these in an ever-increasing litigious world. The course will consider the legal framework within which engineers are required to operate, and at a practical and technical level what they need to do to manage their risk both internally and financially.
Description
With a focus on engineers’ potential legal liabilities and how they might be avoided, this course will cover:
- The legal principles imposing liability on engineers.
- How those legal principles apply to the engineer’s everyday work with practical examples of when liability will arise.
- Identifying situations and behaviours that may lead to a claim being made.
- The legal and professional consequences of legal liability
- What practical steps can be taken to avoid and minimize exposure to claims.
- Understanding your insurance policy and making sure it works for you.
Intended audience
- All engineers including clients, consultants and contractors at all levels and disciplines.
- Engineers who wish to gain a greater understanding about the potential risks and liabilities surrounding the work they are undertaking.
- Managers or owners of engineering practices who need to address organisational issues and how risk can be managed when they sell or retire.
Learning outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Recognise how the law approaches questions of an engineer’s liability.
- Relate how some practices you encounter in the workplace could expose one to claims and of the consequences that flow from this.
- Identify some steps one can take to ensure that one does not face those claims and if they do how to manage them.
- Distinguish what your insurance policy may and may not cover and identify what questions to ask your broker.
Course format
This is a practical and highly interactive course that is responsive to the participants’ needs and the issues that impact on them on a day-to-day basis.
Presenter information
Stuart Meakins has over 25 years’ experience of working in the construction industry in both the United Kingdom and New Zealand and has a master’s degree from the Auckland University Law School.
Earlier roles in the United Kingdom included asset advisor to the Crown Estate and research manager for the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) before moving into construction contract management.
Stuart has been a client-side project and contracts manager for the past 15 years and has managed a wide range of NEC, ICE and NZS 3910 contracts and has “real life” experience of the challenges of working in this environment.
Susan Thodey was educated and admitted as a solicitor in London. In 1989, she moved to New Zealand and was subsequently admitted as a solicitor and barrister both in New Zealand and Western Samoa. Susan worked for many years as the Managing Partner in a mid-sized Auckland firm. Since 2015, she has been in sole practice based in Queenstown.
Since 1989, Susan has specialised in the resolution of professional liability disputes. She acts for a range of clients including professionals, local and regional government and insurance companies.
From 2012 to 2018, Susan was appointed to a government role to assist on the legal aspects of the rebuild of Christchurch following the Canterbury Earthquakes. In 2019, Susan started working with Engineering New Zealand as an educator focused on teaching engineers about the legal aspects of their professional responsibilities, potential liabilities and insurance relationships.
Schedule:
9am-4.30pm