Professional engineers and architects have legal responsibilities and liabilities as dictated by state statutes. Many of these responsibilities and liabilities are not generally understood by the public or various segments of the building industry until they lead to catastrophic events that are covered in the news.
These responsibilities and liabilities do not always come with full authority due to contractual terms between professional engineers, architects, and their clients. This is a growing challenge for professional engineers and architects in the consulting industry as well as the design-build industry.