Who's Opinion Is it? 12

[Envelope3]

There is debate in the office on how to phrase professional opinions in technical reports. From a legal perspective, when a PE renders an opinion on company letterhead, is it legally the opinion of the individual or the opinion of the company? Moreover, does it matter how the conclusion is phrased within a technical report? For example, which of the following versions would be preferred? "COMPANY NAME concluded the concrete was not adequate because of...." verses "JOE SCHMO P.E. concluded the concrete was not adequate because of...."

 

[MJB315]

Re: Observations, Assessments, and Recommendations.

@BARetired: I hear what you're saying and I agree - if you are making a recommendation on a very narrow scope, it makes sense to just stick the observation, assessment, and recommendation all together in the same sentence.

Copying your sentence and coloring: "The parking lot directly behind the building is in terrible condition and needs to be re-surfaced." BOOM, all three in one sentence. Done.

My example above (which we don't need to dwell on) was intended to be a mock report for a larger scope (like a site or building) where I understand it's much cleaner to break the report into three sections (All Observations, All Assessments, and then All Recommendations) so they're bundled and cleaner to read.

I hear you that it would be silly to make an observation and...then...just...leave it there, while the reader wonders what they are supposed to do with that.

 

[BAretired]

Understood, MJB315. Effective report writing is an important skill for an engineer to have and there are many aspects to consider.

 

[Greenalleycat]

Interesting that we have evolved from a discussion on opinion ownership/liability to a grammar lesson

FWIW I have emailed our engineering professional body for their input - interested to see if they have any advice on individual vs company ownership/liability

 

[geotechguy1]

Hopefully they say it's all the companies fault!

 

[Greenalleycat]

Actually they said "we can't give you legal advice" so they're no help at all

 

[lexpatrie]

That was a foregone conclusion.

 

[Greenalleycat]

@Lex, it was naive of me to hope for anything better
They are our governing professional body though, you'd think they would have SOMETHING to share on this...

 

[BAretired]

For an employee, most employers would likely assume liability unless perhaps the report contained material which was grossly incompetent. Even in that case, most corporations may choose to assume liability if the damages are not extreme. It is a legal matter and the professional body was quite right to withhold comment.

 

[Greenalleycat]

<rant>
Well our "professional body" employs exactly 1 engineer in an engineering capacity - the majority of the business is actually lawyers
So, I don't personally feel that them withholding comment is right
They fail to provide meaningful technical benefit so the least they can do is use the disgusting numbers of lawyers they employ to provide some legal direction ffs
</rant>

 

[lexpatrie]

I suppose but you aren't their client so they don't work for you anyway, this is like expecting free "advice" on constructing a bridge, following it, then expecting to transfer liability if that advice is wrong, hence, they abstain. As would we.